


A Princess of Doom?

by karavasa



Category: Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Voltron: Lion Voltron
Genre: Action/Adventure, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Galactic politics, Lotor has a dirty mind, Multiple Pov, Occasional angst, Slow Burn, Smut, but he's also all about consent, castle drama, lion combat, megathrusters are go, space mouse POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:26:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 54
Words: 63,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karavasa/pseuds/karavasa
Summary: A chance encounter leaves Lotor convinced that Allura, her planet, and her giant magical robot are finally within his grasp. And then, on the brink of his greatest triumph, Zarkon's interference threatens to spoil it all.While Lotor struggles with his increasingly limited options, Allura vows to keep Arus safe at any price. She has plans and priorities of her own, and she can't let those be swayed by the handsome Prince of Doom.





	1. A Chance Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Everything here is based on the 80s cartoon, not the current one.

Someone was going to get hurt just as soon as Lotor could decide who was most deserving of his ire.

He was sitting in the cockpit of his one-man fighter, finally ready to get the hell off this craggy shitpile of a planet. The Torassian Pirates had asked to meet him here, and they had six thousand ships under their banner. If they set their numbers to harassing Galaxy Garrison supply freighters rather than chasing after merchants, it would give a considerable boost to the war effort.

Lotor had shown considerable restraint for the sake of those six thousand ships. He’d come alone, as they asked, so that a sizable landing force wouldn’t betray this position. He’d endured a dull tour of their smuggling facility, feigning interest in its day-to-day operations. For six thousand ships he’d swallowed the insult when the admiral of this band of thugs had arrived _late_ for their meeting, as if the Crown Prince of Doom ought to wait on any other man’s pleasure. He’d even made a courtly refusal when the admiral’s pretty young wife propositioned him in her husband’s absence. He wasn’t in the habit of turning a willing woman down, but the thought of six thousand ships left him bowing over her hand rather than bending her over the table. He’d been polite and charming to every one of those rustics, buoyed up by the promise of six thousand hardened pirate vessels vowing service to Doom.

And then he’d spoken to the “admiral.”

Gray Dennison was a grizzled old veteran with a courtesy title and dreams beyond his reach. He commanded twenty-seven ships in his own right, only three of which were present, and he’d gathered signs of interest from the captains of forty more. But he was confident that more of the Torassians would fall in line over time.

They’d dragged Lotor all the way here for a splinter group, sixty-seven ships out of six thousand. Only the hazy memory that he had no soldiers at his back kept him from drawing his blade.

Oh how his father would laugh. Pulling his flagship out of position with the fleet to haggle over a few dozen skirmishers? It was intolerable. He’d diverted from Arus, where he was, at last, ready to claim a final victory over Voltron. He should be reviewing the battle plans and inspecting Haggar’s latest robeast, but he couldn’t resist this chance to line up a few surprises for his next campaign. He’d lost too many ships in the war, and allying with the pirates had seemed like a good way to replace them.

Though he hadn’t attacked Admiral Dennison, Lotor couldn’t resist spurning their proposal in less than complimentary terms. It would have been more prudent to strike a bargain, to leave Galaxy Garrison guessing at the loyalties of the rest of the Torassian force. But he couldn’t let these fools think there was profit in luring Doom with more help than they could truly bring to bear. Sixty-seven ships were scarcely worth the empire’s time, and they certainly didn’t merit the personal attention of Prince Lotor.

The only decision left to make was whether he’d rather come back and scorch this backwater base or sate his fury on the intelligence officer who’d vetted this mess.

A crackle from his private comm channel pulled Lotor’s attention away from the vengeance he was plotting. “Prince Lotor? This is Commander Cossack. We just picked up two lion ships, Green and Blue, on our long-range scanners. You may want to stay on the surface for now.”

Blue Lion was here? And with only one companion? Lotor’s mind churned through the possibilities; perhaps he could salvage something from this mess after all. “It’s only those two? You’re sure?”

“Yes, Sire. I’ve called for an escort ship, and we can hold them off until then. But your fighter is no match for even one of those lion ships.”

“That’s what I’m counting on, Cossack,” he said. A broad smile broke over his face as he realized that Princess Allura would soon be in his grasp. “Here’s what we’re going to do…”

***

“Wow, Princess, it looks like that tip we got was right,” Pidge said. He eased back the throttle of Green Lion, slowing to take stock of the situation. “One of Doom’s ships is circling the planet. They’ve got to be looking for something down there.”

“It’s a good thing we decided to come check it out.” Allura maneuvered her own lion ship next to his. When the call came in, Pidge had suggested they return to the Castle of Lions right away. It was against protocol to leave their patrol route without telling the others, so they should have headed home to let Keith and Coran decide what to do about the possibility of Doom ships in the area. Allura didn’t want to run back to Arus with nothing but a rumor, though. They had visual confirmation now, and wasn’t that worth bending the rules?

Allura’s tactical display chirped out a warning, drawing her attention to a lone fighter heading up from the planet’s surface. It was speeding towards the transport ship.

“Uh, Princess?” Pidge’s face popped up on her comm screen. He looked worried. “I just intercepted a transmission between those two ships. The pilot of that fighter… it’s Lotor!”

“Prince Lotor? Here?” Her breath caught tight in her chest. Lotor was in command of all Doom’s forces. If they had him as a hostage, they could force a treaty. They could save Planet Arus once and for all. “Distract that transport. I’m going to capture him.”

“It’s too dangerous!” Green Lion cut in front of Allura’s Blue. “Let’s go get the rest of the team.”

There was no time to argue. The fighter raced towards the safety of the larger ship, and their chance to intercept it had almost passed. “Just do it, Pidge. We can’t let Lotor get away!”

Blue Lion slipped beneath Green’s paws, unleashing a barrage of laser fire at the fighter. Pidge squealed a protest as he joined the formation. Allura felt a slight twinge of guilt at forcing her friend to cover for her, but how often could she expect to have Lotor at this kind of disadvantage? She’d make it up to Pidge later.

The fighter twisted away from her lasers, but the maneuver threw it out of line with the transport. Allura fired again, clipping one of the tiny ship’s engines. As it sank slowly back towards the planet, she gave a triumphant shout.

A dozen other fighters, identical to the one she was so intent on, swarmed out of the transport’s hold. Green Lion swooped down, scattering them. “I’ll hold them off, Princess. But we need to get out of here fast!”

“I’m on it, Pidge.” Allura sent Blue Lion into a dive, scooping at the lone fighter, but it ducked just out of her reach. The lion ship and the crippled fighter joined in a game of cat and laser-blasted mouse, with Lotor managing to evade each further attack while they sank into the planet’s atmosphere. The fighter fell into a controlled crash, clipping the treetops as it finally slid to rest on a thickly forested hillside.

Allura circled the crash site, taking stock of the situation. She’d planned to carry Lotor’s ship back to Arus in Blue Lion’s jaws, but according to her scanners, his cockpit had been breached. She would have to find another way.

She settled her lion next to the wreckage and disembarked, pulling her pistol. A faint hissing sound came from the fighter as its air supply vented out through its cracked seals. The engine that she’d taken out smoldered, but its fire suppression system had kept the rest of the ship from going up in flames. She circled the fighter and then gasped. The cockpit was empty!


	2. Springing the Trap

Lotor stifled a laugh as he heard the footsteps grow nearer. She’d blasted him out of the sky! Allura’s kindness was often interpreted as weakness, but he knew better. There was steel in her too. Even now she stalked him, determined but wary. She wasn’t skilled enough to truly get the drop on him yet, but they could work on that. Once he’d helped hone her instincts, she was going to make an excellent Princess of Doom.

He kept his eyes shut and his breaths even, as if he’d crawled from the cockpit and then collapsed. She crouched at his side. “Lotor?” Her voice was a balm to him.

It had been months since he’d seen her last, a fleeting glance as she ran to her lion. He’d called out to her then, but after a slight hitch in her step she’d run on. She hadn’t even looked back. She was still so set in her girlish views, so sure the Galaxy Alliance was good and Doom was bad and Lotor was worst of all. Sooner or later she’d learn that nothing in life was that simple.

She stretched out and set two slim fingers along his neck. Why would she… ah. His pulse beat strong and even. A little fast for someone who was supposedly unconscious, but she wouldn’t know what was normal for a drule.

Allura stood, stepped back. “Pidge? What’s wrong?”

A message from the other pilot, then. Lotor forced himself to relax. It wouldn’t do to strike before he knew whether Green Lion was nearby.

“Another ship? Pidge, get out of there!” Concern for the other pilot laced thick through her tone. “Don’t worry about me. Lotor’s here, but he’s passed out. I’ll be right behind you as soon as I get him into the lion.”

He was tempted to let her try. Would she decide to restrain him first? To bind his arms before dragging him to her ship? Surely she wouldn’t deal so roughly with an injured man. It was an amusing idea, but he didn’t think he could play dead for long if his princess had her hands on him.

“Just go. I’ll stay in the atmosphere and circle around the planet until I’ve got a clear shot past them. Blue Lion can outrun anything Doom’s got up there.”

It was a good plan, one that would almost certainly work without his interference. He coiled his muscles, still waiting. It wouldn’t be long now.

“Yes, I will. You too, Pidge. I’ll see you soon.”

And just like that, Allura cut off contact with the only person who could possibly come to her aid.

***

With an enemy fleet on the way, Princess Allura knew there was no time to lose. She had to get Lotor into her lion ship, and she couldn’t afford to be gentle. She got an awkward grip on his arm and heaved with all her strength.

The Prince of Doom shifted a few inches over the rocky, churned-up, soil. She pulled again, harder, with much the same result. Blue Lion was eighty yards away. She bit her lip, looking from her ship to the man lying in front of her. He was tall, muscular, and _heavy_ , and his troops would come streaming out of the sky any minute now. Maybe she should leave him here.

When she dropped his arm his golden eyes sprang open, and Lotor exploded into motion. He surged to his feet and tackled her, pinning her beneath his body. She kicked up, flailing her limbs, and somehow managed to wriggle free. He grabbed at her uniform as she scooted back, but the cloth slid out of his hand.

Allura aimed her laser pistol at the treacherous prince even before she came to her feet. _Of course_ he’d been faking this whole time. It was exactly the kind of nasty trick he’d play. But she had him now, and he could walk to Blue Lion and sit quietly while she got out the set of restraints that were stored there.

His narrow mouth drew into a smirk, as if he was somehow enjoying the fact that he’d just been captured.

“Move towards the lion, and don’t give me any trouble,” she said, gesturing with the pistol.

“But Princess,” he purred over her title, making it sound like a far more intimate form of address. “What are we going to do when we get there?”

Had he hit his head in the crash? “We’re going to Arus, where I’ll negotiate terms with your father. Don’t worry, we’ll be kinder to you than King Zarkon was to the Voltron Force when he captured them.”

The smile spread wider across his chiseled features. “Oh, I’ll happily accept any kindness you care to offer, princess, but it doesn’t suit me to do that on Arus. I’m afraid I must decline your invitation.”

“It’s not a request.” Allura lifted the pistol. She kept a close watch on him, and if he made a move towards his sword hilt, she’d fire.

“You’ve caught me fairly,” he said, holding a hand up in sign of surrender. “But how can you keep me when you have no way to get home?”

She darted a gaze behind her, where Blue Lion sat just as she’d left it. Then a prickle of dread walked up her spine. Allura held the gun steady in her right hand while she slowly stretched the left towards her chest, to the bare insignia that should have had her lion key clipped on top of it. A tremor crept into her voice. “Give me my key.”

“Come and search me for it. I don’t mind.” He stretched his arms out wide, away from his body.

“I mean it. I’ll shoot.”

“Will you?” Lotor took a step closer. “I haven’t drawn a weapon. Would you truly shoot me in cold blood?”

“Yes, I would. The pistol is set on stun.”

He stepped closer still. “Ah, but we both know that, at this range, even a stun blast can do permanent damage. And I still feel a little rattled from that crash. You could hurt me, Allura. You could kill me.”

“I… I’d rather not.” she said. He was her enemy, but the prince had also protected her in the past. She wanted him defeated, not dead. “I will if I have to, though! Give me the key to my lion.”

Lotor gave his head a sad, small shake, and then he darted forward. He was already dodging when she fired. The shot cleared over his shoulder just before he knocked her hand aside, directing her next blast harmlessly away.

He caught her wrist, holding tight enough to control it but using no unnecessary force. Allura had been trained in hand-to-hand combat by the other Voltron pilots, but Lotor was strong enough to overpower her. If she struggled too hard she’d only hurt herself. With her gun hand in his grasp she was all but helpless, and he knew it.

“Drop it.” He didn’t even sound winded.

She found herself shaking her head. The gun was the only thing that gave her any chance against him, but she’d already been too slow and weak to use it. She choked back a sob of frustration.

Lotor spun her, wrapping his free arm around her waist while still holding tight to her wrist. “You’ve done so well today, Allura, but you don’t need the gun. You’re safe with me, Princess. I swear it.”

She loosened her fingers, letting the laser pistol fall into the dirt at their feet. But standing there, held tight against Lotor’s body, she felt that safety was no longer something she could hope for.


	3. Shutting Down

“Commander Cossack, come in. I’ve got the princess and Blue Lion secured, but I need you to send a team to pick us up,” Lotor said, resisting the temptation to fly the lion up to his command ship. As eager as he was to show off his prize, he didn't want to let Allura back inside that cockpit if he could avoid it. The princess had escaped him often enough to teach him a little caution, at least where she was concerned.

The reply held the telltale crackle of an interstellar relay, and a gravelly voice that he knew all too well came through the speaker. “Sorry my boy, but there’s been a change of plans.”

“King Zarkon!”

“Of course. Who else would have the authority to countermand your orders?” Zarkon scarcely paused for a breath, let alone for an answer. “You’ve done something right for once son, but now I can’t let you rejoin the fleet. If Blue Lion is out of commission then I don’t want it anywhere _near_ Planet Arus.”

“But father… my command.” Lotor argued, as he was no doubt expected to, but he refused to beg Zarkon to reconsider. He wouldn’t give the old man the satisfaction.

“I’m sure that Cossack can handle a simple blockade; I want you to bring the girl and her ship back immediately. Once we get that lion to Doom, the Voltron Force will never recover it. I’m sending a transport to pick you up, and it should get there in, oh, about a week or so. In the meantime, the fleet will carry out our plans. Without Voltron to save it, Arus will fall. Your only job from now on is to keep Blue Lion grounded.”

“Yes, Father,” Lotor gritted his teeth. 

His father signed off, and Lotor’s fate was sealed. 

“How dare he?” The prince shouted his defiance at the sky. The blockade was _his_ plan. The fleet officers were _his_ men, specially trained and picked for this mission. How could Zarkon remove him so neatly at the final moment? The defeat of Arus should have been _his_ triumph, but his father had stolen that too.

“Lotor? Are you alright?” The princess set a small hand against his shoulder.

He jerked away. No matter how badly he craved Allura’s touch, he would not accept it out of pity. “I’m fine,” he said, almost snapping out the words. Then he caught himself, taking a calming breath. She should not have seen this humiliation, but he’d control his anger for her sake. Allura was the one bright spot in this mess; he wouldn’t let his father taint this time with her. 

She stood behind him, concern clear in her bright blue eyes. “So we’re stuck here.”

Not if Lotor had anything to say about it. The other lion pilots would have their hands full with the fleet, but they’d also be desperately worried about Allura. One or two might come here, especially because they couldn’t form Voltron without Blue Lion anyway. He weighed the risk of letting her near her lion against the chance that she might be taken from him, spirited away beyond his reach. “I’m not going to sit here like a lost child waiting for help. Come, Allura. We’ll take the lion.”

***

Lotor strode boldly towards Blue Lion, taking it for granted that the princess would follow. And why wouldn’t she? It’s not as if she could escape him. If she ran, he would catch her. Even if she slipped away somehow, where would she go? Allura didn’t know a thing about this world, but if Lotor had visited it then she couldn’t count on finding help. Anyone she met here might be his ally.

She was tired, scared, and angry with herself for getting into this situation in the first place. She should have listened to Pidge. She should have followed the rules, gone home to Coran and Keith and Nanny and left all this for someone else to handle. She was still just a spoiled little girl trying too hard to be brave.

Allura didn’t feel very brave right now, but things were about to go from bad to worse.

It was one thing to be captured. She’d been captured before. But she had never messed up badly enough to hand over control of one of Arus’s lion ships. She couldn’t let that happen. Prince Lotor was going to be so angry, but she wouldn’t let that sway her. 

Quickly, before she could change her mind, Allura opened a comm channel in her helmet. “Blue Lion: emergency override one-niner-alpha. Go.” Blue Lion’s eyes flashed twice in response and then it sank to the ground, lying sphinxlike before settling its head on its paws. Its eyes flashed again, and then the whole ship powered down.

Lotor’s drawl was almost casual as he turned to her, but there was a glint of danger in his eyes. “Care to explain, Princess?”

“It’s an emergency shutdown mode,” she said calmly, trying to keep her voice even. “Blue Lion won’t respond now, not even to the key.” He stalked back in her direction, his gaze locked on hers, and Allura shivered. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like to hold the entire weight of his attention. 

“It sounds as if you’re in no hurry to get to Doom,” he said as he reached her side. Lotor lifted a hand to her cheek. “But Allura, if you wanted to spend the entire week alone with me, all you had to do was ask.”

Worry and fear roiled through her mind. There was a thin lacing of anger there too, as well as a few other emotions too contradictory to define. She wanted to run or hide or lash out, but instead Princess Allura took the more traditional route of a young, exhausted royal faced with more than she could bear: she fainted.


	4. Finding Shelter

When Allura woke, she was draped in Lotor’s arms. 

He carried her through the forest, moving quickly enough that her weight didn’t seem like a burden to him. The position of the sun had changed. On Arus she might have guessed that more than an hour had passed, but the days on this world wouldn’t be the length she was used to. She might have been unconscious for half an hour or four times that. The important thing was that, with every moment that went by, Lotor was taking her farther from Blue Lion.

She ventured a glance up at her captor, only to find him watching her already. “Welcome back, princess.”

Allura squirmed in his grip. “Put me down.”

“But I like carrying you, and we’re making better time this way.” He picked their way through the trees without missing a step, though he never seemed to look to the trail.

“Well I don’t like being carried.”

He let out an exaggerated sigh before stopping to tip Allura gently down on her feet. Without the sway of Lotor’s long-legged stride, she got a better look at her surroundings. The forest was made up of tall, mature trees that stretched far overhead, shading a carpet of thick, brown moss. There was a steep hill of smooth mottled stone before them. Lotor had a large bag strapped to his back, and her helmet hung from one side of it. “We’re nearly there anyway.”

“Where are you taking me? Why have we left the lion?” Without her ship in sight, Allura felt even more disoriented.

“I wanted to put distance between us and the crash site in case the locals get nosy,” he said. But if Lotor wanted to avoid the people on this planet, then they surely couldn’t be his allies? The princess felt her spirits rise. “And just in case you’re wondering, the base here is full of Torassian pirates. If they find you out on your own, they’ll just sell you back to me.”

She’d heard of the Torassians before. They had a horrible reputation among Alliance worlds, but if things got bad enough with Lotor then they might be worth trying. Surely Keith and the others would come before she was driven to such desperate measures.

Lotor pulled out a flexible datapad and tapped it, adjusting the display. The brief glimpse she caught looked like a map, but Allura was too far to make out any details before Lotor folded the datapad into his pocket. “This way,” he said, setting off again.

After a moment, Allura followed. Under other circumstances she might have preferred being alone in a strange wilderness to sticking close to Lotor. He still had Blue Lion’s key though, so she’d go where he went. For now.

***

Walking through the woods with Allura should have been a more pleasant experience, preferably involving a basket filled with rich foods, sweet wine, and a pair of large, soft blankets. Instead she tromped sullenly behind him, accepting his hand only when she needed help with the uneven terrain.

While this was hardly one of the idyllic scenarios he’d dreamed of, he was still happy to have her company. And with the fleet speeding towards Arus, there’d be no Voltron Force swooping in before he had any time to woo her. Not even his father could interfere with them now, which made him almost grateful she’d played that trick with her lion. He was in excellent spirits by the time they reached their destination.

The mouth of the cave was a narrow crack all but hidden behind a lichen-covered boulder. If not for the map, he’d have walked right past the place. The entrance was a tight fit for Lotor, but Allura slipped easily inside after him. It opened into a broad chamber with a low ceiling lit only by the lantern that Lotor pulled from his pack.

“How did you know this was here?” Allura asked quietly.

He shrugged. “Doom keeps very good maps, and my advisors marked several useful bolt holes when I decided to come here.” Lotor slung his pack to the ground, stretching the feel of it from his back and shoulders. After making a quick check of his supplies, he grabbed a pair of canteens from his emergency kit. “There’s a small stream nearby, so I’m going for water. Would you like to walk with me or stay here?”

“I’ll stay,” she said, answering fast. It’s what he expected. He also expected that his kit would be thoroughly rummaged through by the time he returned, but Lotor didn’t mind. He meant to share the supplies with her anyway. 

“Very well, but it’s important that you wait in the cave. This area has short days and long, cold nights.” He could think of far better ways to spend them than trailing her through the forest.

“I already said I’d stay put.” She crossed her arms.

He gave her a nod and headed out. The stream wasn’t far, but he kept a wary eye out for trouble. They were too close for comfort to that pirate base. He hadn’t provoked Dennison enough that the man would try to harm him, but he suspected that the pirates wouldn’t offer him much in the way of a welcome either. He also didn’t want them catching sight of Allura.

When he returned with the water, he found her seated on a rock in the center of the cave. Everything looked just as he’d left it. Lotor unpacked a few things from his kit, starting with a packet of tablets that would clean the water. He felt a brief rush of pride when he noticed that the utility knife was no longer tucked in its place. His princess wasn’t the type to sit idly by when there was any way to improve her situation. Having a weapon should make her less skittish, so Lotor was happy to overlook it. It’s not as if she’d gut him in his sleep.

He waved a hand at their surroundings. “I know the accommodations leave something to be desired, but you’ll have a much nicer suite in the castle once we’re married.”

Allura shook her head. “Carrying me off to Doom won’t change things, Lotor. I don’t want to be your wife.”

“Why not?” He braced for her usual litany of complaints: our people are enemies, your father is evil. You are a horrible brute who’s intent on taking over my planet.

“Because I’m not in love with you.”

His pulse beat faster. It wasn’t as flat a denial as it sounded. She might feel nothing for him now, but all great loves started somewhere. Her feelings could grow. “Of course you’re not in love with me. How could you be?” He crossed over, sat beside her, and took one of her small hands in both of his. “You know my reputation and the things I’ve done on Zarkon’s orders, but I’m my own man, Allura. I’ll prove that to you.”

Her blue eyes went wide. “I… I don’t know.”

“Please. Can’t you at least just give me a chance?” He stared at her, willing her to give an answer. If he could get this one, small yes from her, Allura’s sense of fair play would hold her to that promise.

She looked at him for a moment, and finally made a small nod. “I’ll try.”

 


	5. The First Night

While Lotor set up their little camp, Allura sat, hands folded, trying not to panic. Why had she given him the slightest cause for hope? And what might he expect from her now?

She used to think Lotor’s proposals were a ploy to gain control of Arus without defeating Voltron. Over time she’d come to believe in their sincerity, but that just made his attentions seem all the more confusing.  It had been far easier to see him as a cynic who pursued her in the name of personal glory.

In some ways they’d even make sense as a couple. He was of a suitable age and rank, and an alliance between them would immediately end the war. No more bombings, no more burned out cities. The children of Arus could grow up in relative safety. He was also very handsome, though she could never imagine admitting she thought so.

But Doom itself was deplorable. While she understood that the people there couldn’t all be bad, their policies were warlike and aggressive. Allura hated the thought of Arus’s resources being used to fund Zarkon’s wars. She refused to put her people in the hands of such a tyrant.

“These may not taste like much, but they’ll keep us going,” Lotor said, offering her first choice from the case of ration packs.

Allura picked one at random, scarcely looking at the flavor options. “As many times as our crops have burned, I’ve learned to eat what I’m given.”

He let the words pass without comment, and she was grateful for it. She hadn’t intended them as an insult. But his planet’s constant attacks on her home had defined her life, and she refused to tiptoe around that fact. If Lotor wanted them to get to know one another better, he’d have to deal with it.

As he’d predicted, the afternoon light faded fast. Lotor switched on a lantern that let off a cool, blue-tinged glow, and then he brought his own ration pack and sat, cross-legged, near her feet. 

She ate slowly, deciding that the processed meal was bland but easily palatable. Lotor finished his dinner first and then seemed content to watch her. She found herself drawing out each bite, reluctant to reach that point where, with their immediate needs taken care of, there would be nothing else to distract him.

Once she’d finally finished eating, his next words surprised her. “Tell me about Arus.”

Allura tensed. “What do you want to know?” Was he going to interrogate her now? She wouldn’t reveal any of the castle’s secrets no matter what he tried.

“What’s it like? We have a lot of data on the place, but population estimates and mineral maps don’t tell me much about your life there.”

She paused. Talking about her home might make her feel a little less far from it, and surely there couldn’t be any military value in what he was asking. “Arus is wonderful,” she began. Then Allura explained her planet’s long growing season. That would have been in Doom’s reports, but she went on to describe its impact on daily life. She told him about how the towns and cities had been planned with that advantage in mind, complete with urban farms and entire communities that worked large patches of land together. They’d used technology, designed partly by her father, to increase their yields enough to become rich off their exports. That prosperity had seemed like a blessing until it drew Zarkon’s interest.

Lotor sat beside her, quiet except for a few incisive questions. He listened to her go on about planting festival traditions and summertime fairs until she broke off with an abrupt yawn. “You’ve had a long day,” he said then, climbing to his feet. “We should get some rest.”

He grabbed a thick packet from his kit that rolled out into a sleeping bag. After waving Allura over, he thumbed a switch on the side, and the bottom of the bag puffed with air. It wouldn’t be as comfortable as her down mattress back at the castle, but it would serve.

“This may be a tight fit, but I guess we’ll manage,” he said. The faintest trace of a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

She froze. “Oh no. No way. We are not sharing.”

He turned to her, arching an eyebrow. “I thought you were trying to keep an open mind.”

Allura sputtered. “That does not extend to going to bed with you!”

“Well a single-pilot fighter only comes with gear for one person,” he said, as if she ought to have known that. “The temperature’s still dropping. Your flight suit isn’t warm enough on its own, and there isn't enough ventilation in here for a fire. If you’d honestly rather freeze than lie down with me, then I’m sorry. But I’m not going to let that happen.” He moved towards her.

She retreated quickly until she thudded back against the cave wall. “Lotor, please. I’m all alone, entirely in your power. It’s indecent to treat me this way.”

“I’m less concerned with chivalry than survival.” He reached out for her arm and stopped, frowning, as she shrank from him. A flash of something passed through his eyes, fading too quick for her to interpret. He took a step back. “Gods, Allura, I’m not going to force myself on you.”

Her mouth went dry. There was nothing she could think of to say.

“We need to do this so we can both stay warm. I won’t deny that I’ll enjoy being close to you, but I wouldn’t push you on even that much if it wasn’t necessary.”

“So we’ll just be sleeping?”

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” she said firmly. Perhaps she’d overreacted, but she’d never shared a bed with a man before. It would be awkward even with one of her teammates. Lotor stretched out a hand and, feeling sheepish, she took it. He was trying to take care of her. Maybe she ought to be more grateful. 

She was halfway to feeling guilty for the misunderstanding before he dropped his voice to a throaty purr. “Let me know if you change your mind though,” he said. His hand squeezed hers just a fraction more tightly. “I want to be with you, Allura. But when you give yourself to me, it’s going to be because you’re aching for it. Because you’re desperate to feel me inside you. And when that day comes, I’m going to make you ask me with your very best manners. You’ll have to say please.”

A furious blush flooded her cheeks. “And to think you’d almost reassured me about your intentions.”

He laughed. It was a low, sinuous sound that tightened something low in her gut. Gooseflesh rose on her arms, and that had more to do with the thumb brushing her knuckles than the growing chill in the air. “Make no mistake about my intentions, Princess. I’ve never bothered to hide them. I aim to have you in my bed for more than just practical reasons one day, but that can wait until you’re ready.”

Allura stiffened her spine, drawing on every scrap of dignity she could muster. “Can we please just get on with this? I’ve had enough of your vulgarity.”

“Of course,” he said, inclining his head. “But eventually you won’t mind my vulgarity so much, either.”

She pulled her hand from his grasp and shouldered past him towards the sleeping bag. Lotor gave her a few moments to pull off her boots and wriggle her way inside, and then he extinguished the lamp and plunged them into darkness.


	6. In the Darkness

It was still full dark when Lotor woke. He needed less sleep than a human, but the cave was bitterly cold and he was quite happy to stay where he was. He’d started the night lying back to back with Allura. Despite her exhaustion, it took the better part of an hour before he felt the tension drain from her body as she drifted off. His own rest came easy after that.

They’d shifted in sleep, and now he lay flat on his back with her arm snaked over his middle. Her head was pillowed against his shoulder. He might have wished that her hair was loose or that they were wearing less clothing, but she was soft and warm and curled up beside him. Lotor was content.

Her reaction to the idea of sharing the sleeping bag bothered him. He thought they were making progress, and she’d certainly relaxed while telling him about her home.  But then why had she worried he might harm her? Hadn’t he already made it clear she was under his protection? He wanted Allura as a partner not a plaything; he needed to make her understand the distinction.

She let out a deep breath and nestled closer, so maybe some part of her knew there was nothing to fear. He wanted to take her in his arms, to run his hands over her curves and learn the taste of her sweet skin, but she wouldn’t welcome such intimacies. At least not yet.

He kept as still as he could, hoping to extend the interlude. Eventually, she stirred. Lotor braced himself for the shouting, but her tone, when she spoke, was quiet. “Please tell me this is a dream.”

“It feels like one to me,” Lotor said. She sighed, moved her arm, and tried to wriggle away. He turned onto his side and inched backwards, giving her a fraction of extra space before he continued. “If this is a dream, what happens next?”

“You return my lion key and come along quietly to a cell on Arus.” She was only a faint smudge of shadow right now, but he could picture her wide-eyed expression perfectly.

His voice dipped lower. “Your dreams sound boring. Want to hear what you’d do in one of mine?”

Allura sighed again. Then she rolled over, facing away from him. “I feel like I’ve slept for ages, but the sun isn’t up.”

He nodded, though she couldn’t see the gesture. “Dawn won’t come for at least an hour.”

“Oh,” she said softly. “I guess you weren’t kidding about the long nights.”

“It’s the time of year. The nights here will be far shorter in a few months.”

There was a long pause. “You know a lot about it.”

“My briefings are thorough,” he said. It was the one policy of his father’s that Lotor fully agreed with. “Our commanders are taught to learn everything they can about a planet before setting down on it. That’s one of the reasons we’re so successful.”

“Successful at taking over other people’s worlds.” Her words fell flatly between them.

“Yes.” Did she expect him to deny it? He knew very well what he was, what he’d been raised to do.

“But why? Why can’t you live peacefully with the rest of the galaxy?”

“I do it because disobeying my king would get me tossed in the Pit of Skulls,” he said dryly, trying to imagine the look on Zarkon’s face if he declared himself some kind of pacifist. “That grumpy old bastard won’t go easy on me just because I’m his son, and besides, our whole planet is barren. We need the resources to feed our people.”

“If you’d only stop being so aggressive, I’m sure the Galaxy Alliance could help.”

He sounded a low, bitter laugh. “The Alliance has never cared about the drule, Princess. They’d happily let us all starve.”

“I don’t believe that.” She sounded so sure. Such naiveté from anyone else might have sent him into a rage, but in her it was oddly charming.

“Forgive me if I’m not willing to gamble the lives of every man, woman, and child in the empire on the goodwill of the Alliance. Galaxy Garrison can barely help you, and Arus is only one planet.”

“The Alliance has always been there for us,” she said, jumping to their defense.

He huffed. Why did she have such faith in that pack of opportunists? “How much help were they after your father died, Allura? When you were most in need of weapons, ships, and soldiers, they sent what, a few cargo containers of expiring rations? How much real assistance did they give you before you rediscovered Voltron?”

“We were only able to find Voltron thanks to Galaxy Garrison. They sent us the Voltron Force.”

“Hah.” He felt his lip curl into a sneer. “That only proves my point. They gave you their misfits: a control freak, a hot-head, a glutton, and a clown, all of them only a few years out of training. Galaxy Garrison wanted Voltron badly enough to make the effort, but chasing a legend wasn’t worth risking a more experienced team.”

He heard her sharp intake of breath. “Don’t talk about my friends that way! They’re good pilots.”

“They’re mediocre pilots that have the fortune of flying in very, very good ships,” he said. The Voltron Force members were competent, but they relied too heavily on rote attacks and simplistic formations. It took all the power of the lion ships to get them through. “Without those lions, I could take them.”

“Well they won’t stay in the lions when they land to look for me. So I guess we’ll see.” The words were nearly a taunt.

“I look forward to it,” he said before lapsing off into thought.

Would the Voltron Force dare to leave Arus during the blockade? If they tried it, they’d send two pilots at most. That little one, Pidge, would want to redeem himself for leaving Allura in the first place. And her precious Keith would be convinced that he alone could save her, so he was sure to come along. The pair would be desperate and pressed for time enough to split up. They’d be easy prey.

There was a chance he’d get out of this with three-fifths of Voltron. He’d take Black Lion for himself of course, and it wouldn’t be hard to find suitable pilots for the others. In time, maybe he’d even convince Allura to fly Blue Lion under his command. She showed more initiative in battle than all her teammates combined. He could make a damn good pilot out of her once she learned to trust him.

He pictured himself at the head of a new Voltron Force with his princess… no, his _queen_ by his side. He could see it all so clearly. As Allura slipped back in to a light doze, he closed his eyes and lost himself in the fantasy. The two things he wanted most, the princess and his father’s crown, would both be his. No one could cheat him this time.


	7. Skipping Things

Allura spent the next afternoon teaching her people’s would-be conqueror to skip stones.

He hadn’t been enthusiastic about leaving the cave, but the princess insisted on getting outside for a few hours. She needed sunlight and clean, fresh air. They walked along the stream, eventually coming across a small pond that made her clap her hands in delight.

The glassy surface of the water reflected a cloud-heavy sky. She knelt by the edge, washing her hands and face in the shallows that lapped at the rocky bank. Lotor was quiet, but she felt his eyes on her. She smoothed her hands over the rocks, picked one out, and with a flick of her wrist, sent it bouncing out across the surface.

Lotor cocked his head. “How did you do that?”

“You’ve never skipped stones?”

“There’s nothing like this on Doom,” he said, waving a hand at the pond.

She felt a rush of sympathy for the child he used to be; it couldn’t have been easy growing up on such a desolate world. So she showed him, explaining how to choose a thin, flat rock and patiently demonstrating the process.

Again and again, he plunked rocks heavily into the pond. Allura laughed at the consternation on his face, and he shot her a dark look before gathering another pile. He set to work with a fierce look of concentration. She could almost see him calculating the angles, judging and adjusting each fresh attempt.

He proved to be a quick learner. In a half hour’s time, each of his stones skipped at least three times before sinking out of sight. They made a game of counting the hops and despite all her experience, he won a few rounds. Each victory left him with a satisfied smirk.

The afternoon light took on a golden cast, and he announced it was time to go back to the cave. Allura didn’t argue. All the supplies were there, and she didn’t know of any other shelter. Most importantly of all, he still had the key to Blue Lion.

She straightened her shoulders and decided to make the best of the situation. Spending time with Lotor hadn’t been anything like she thought it might be. Sure, he’d said some outrageous things, and there was that moment last night when she’d almost gone for the knife hidden in her pocket. But he hadn’t done anything to hurt her. She’d watch for any opportunity to get back that key, but maybe she could try to be a little friendlier in the meantime.

***

Lotor was feeling pleased with himself. He’d mastered her little pastime with ease, and the princess seemed happy to have shared it with him. He also managed to go the whole day without saying anything that made that thin line of worry spring up between her eyes.

Being out in the forest seemed to lift her spirits. Maybe he could look at his map and find some other scenic place to visit tomorrow.

Halfway back to the cave she broke her silence. “What do children do for fun on Doom?”

“We learned fencing or played strategy games,” he said, naming his two favorite activities. “Any contact sports were encouraged.”

“It sounds like you were training to be soldiers even then.” There was a note of surprise in her voice.

He shrugged. “Doom’s a harsh place, and everything there becomes a competition. Even the youngest among us need to be prepared.”

“But… there must have been something you did just because you enjoyed it?”

“I liked the fencing,” he said, considering. He didn’t spend much time thinking over the past, but there was something else that came to mind. “My mother had a greenhouse. It was small, and even with all the special lamps and imported soil she had a difficult time getting things to take root there. She loved working in it though. When I was very small, I used to like to sit and watch her.”

Her eyes brightened. “You liked to garden?”

“No. I didn’t see much point in the work, but I could stay in there for hours because that’s where _she_ was happiest.” The princess lapsed into silence. He remembered that Allura was fond of growing things too, those same delicate plants and flowers that his mother had favored. “No one’s used that greenhouse in ages, but I could restore it for you.”

“That’s a kind thought, but it wouldn’t be the same,” she said with a soft sigh. “Lotor, I know you mean well, but I could never be happy living on Doom. And besides, Keith and the others will come for me, I just know it.”

The prince bit back the urge to snarl, settling on sarcasm instead. “Your precious commander has no hope of defeating me, but it’s touching to see that you have such faith in your lover.”

Allura gasped sharply. “Keith is _not_ my lover!”

Lotor stopped short, halting by the bank of the stream. The words had the sound of truth, but how was that possible? Keith had always been territorial where the princess was concerned, and she seemed to care for him. Only one explanation made sense. “How interesting. I’d never have taken the leader of the Voltron Force for a coward.”

She whirled on him with anger blooming on her face. “He isn’t a coward, he’s a gentleman!”

“Well I’m not,” Lotor said, and acting on impulse rather than thought, he wrapped an arm around her waist and brought his mouth down on hers.

The kiss was firm and unyielding. His tongue delved between her perfect lips, claiming her mouth with a thoroughness he’d normally reserve for studying an enemy planet or plotting his father’s demise, and she bent back slightly from the force of it. Her body had gone entirely rigid.

_Damn me for a fool_ , he thought, relaxing his grip on her. Their situation called for slow seduction, a leisurely pursuit while he enticed her and charmed her by turns. Instead he’d gotten carried away again; something about Allura always shattered his control.

Then she clutched at his shoulders and began to kiss him back. Her movements were tentative at first, but she arched against him, pushing their bodies closer together. Lotor slowed the kiss, turning it into a long, sweet tease of every other pleasure he was hoping to share with her. She let out a soft moan.

He’d wanted her for so damned long, and now she was here, responding to him. But after a few more delicious minutes he dragged his mouth away. The sun was setting fast, and he found himself desperate for the privacy of the cave. “Allura…”

The words he wanted wouldn’t come to mind. The princess, her cheeks gone scarlet, saved him the trouble of further speech when she slapped him. His head rocked to the side. Lotor’s pride recovered faster than his wits, and a hint of mockery crept into his voice. “Was it really that awful?”

“You know it wasn’t,” she said. That was true, but he felt a flicker of surprise at her honesty before she went on. “I still don’t want you to do that again.”

He turned and walked back towards the cave, brooding heavily over his stinging cheek.


	8. In Hiding

That evening Allura thought over the symptoms of insanity. Kissing an enemy practically had to count as one, didn’t it? A nervous laugh escaped her lips, but Lotor didn’t look over. He was tinkering with his datapad again. He’d spent the whole evening hunched over it, stopping only for the silent break he took for their evening meal.

Part of her wanted to apologize for slapping him. Or for kissing him back in the first place. But she’d been curious and it felt so good that, just for a minute, she’d forgotten herself. With him, it was all too easy to do. Surely that was another sign of madness.

Eventually he stretched his shoulders out and stood. “We should sleep.”

She nodded, though the idea of pressing so close beside him again set her stomach fluttering. She’d been clear enough that she didn’t want him to kiss her any more, and if he tried anything, there was always the little knife she’d stolen. The idea of stabbing anyone made her queasy, but could she bring herself to stab a man she had just kissed? A man she’d _enjoyed_ kissing? Her cheeks flushed again, but thankfully the man in question was already turning out the light.

The kiss had been amazing, not that she had much basis for comparison. She’d played the occasional kissing game when she was younger of course, and once, after one too many goblets of wine, Keith had dropped a chaste peck at the corner of her mouth as they said goodnight. But she’d never been properly kissed until today, and she wondered if she’d done it right. Lotor certainly seemed to be enjoying himself right up until she smacked him. Cousin Romelle’s best advice was to mimic whatever the boy was doing, but her cousin probably hadn’t been kissing anyone as enthusiastic as Lotor. Allura wasn’t sure if there even was anyone else as enthusiastic about kissing as Lotor.

He slid into the sleeping bag and turned his back to her without a single inappropriate word. It should have been a relief, and it was. But she didn’t like for anybody to be upset, especially when they were upset at her. “Lotor? Are you still angry with me?”

He stayed quiet so long that she thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he did, he rushed out the words. “You’re not the one I’m mad at, princess.”

“Oh,” she said softly. Maybe it was best not to ask any more questions tonight.

***

It rained the next day, which suited Lotor’s mood. He checked the forecast on his datapad, still pulling information from the satellite his capital ship had left in orbit. Though it wasn’t really his capital ship anymore, was it? It was Cossack’s now. 

The foul weather kept them penned in their shelter. He’d been reluctant to break cover before, but today even the pirates would be a welcome distraction from the stifled atmosphere in the cave.

He wasn’t used to caring what anyone thought. As long as his subordinates did their jobs, why should he concern himself over whether or not they liked him? And nothing he did would be good enough for his father, so there was no need to give a damn about that old goat’s opinion either. There were two kinds of people in Lotor’s world these days: the ones he hated and the ones who didn’t matter. So how was he supposed to treat a woman who didn’t fit either category?

Concern lit her eyes during breakfast, but she hadn’t been afraid. She’d even smiled at him. Smiled! As if half his thoughts weren’t bent towards every lecherous thing he’d promised not to press on her. His gaze was pulled, again and again, to her lips, and he wondered if the rest of her was just as soft.

No point in thinking about that now. No point in worrying over last night either. He’d pushed her too far, and that was a mistake he wouldn’t repeat. But at least he’d learned that Allura wasn’t entirely indifferent to his charms. She was intrigued by him, no matter how much she might wish otherwise.

Before he had time to spin off that thread into a more elaborate fantasy, he heard a slight chirp of alarm from the datapad. He silenced the device and brought up its security panel, and there it was: an alert from the northern proximity monitor. A quick check of the camera showed two thoroughly drenched humans in the forest. They wore mismatched Torassian gear, light armor of grey and gold that looked too battered to be sound. _Dennison must have really needed to hire on with us_ , he thought with a sneer.

“What’s that?” Allura appeared at his shoulder.

He held a finger to his lips, pointed it the figures on his small screen, and then gestured towards the narrow mouth of the cave. Her eyes went wide in understanding.

Both men were armed, but that didn’t much concern him. They were young, probably inexperienced, and they lacked either the brains or the discipline to maintain their armor. They were used to boarding fat merchant vessels that the Torassians overcame with numbers rather than skill. If he couldn’t take down these two pups, he didn’t deserve to keep either of the prizes he’d stolen.

The problem was that they were here in the first place. He hadn’t been left with the sense that these pirates kept up regular patrols. If their presence meant trouble then they might have reinforcements nearby, and the cave didn’t have another exit. Lotor didn’t relish the idea of being trapped. The passage was defensible, but the pirates weren’t quite stupid enough to wander in to die on his blade. If they wanted to bring him in for some reason, they’d toss gas canisters or maybe a sonic grenade. And even if he could silence the pair before they called for help, someone would come looking. These hills could be crawling with pirates come nightfall.

He decided to remain hidden rather than force a confrontation. They wouldn’t spot the cave unless they examined the rock wall at just the right angle as they passed, and their lax demeanor suggested they wouldn’t bother. They chatted as they walked, keeping under the slight protection of the treeline. Once they were close enough, their voices stood out over the steady patter of the rain.

“I still don’t see why we care where the prince is,” said the taller of the two. He shrugged as he passed from the range of the northernmost camera to the one Lotor had placed just outside the cave.

“Something to do with Lady Dennison,” the second replied, scruffing a hand through his mop of brown curls. “He must have really crossed the line though, the old man is spitting mad.”

“Just as well we’re out here then. And if we have to be out in this mess, I’d rather be here than poking around at that lion.”

At the mention of Blue Lion, Allura’s eyes went wide with anger. Lotor put a hand on her arm. Any stray noise might betray them, so they could hardly afford one of her emotional outbursts. She pressed her mouth to a hard line but gave him a nod.

The men walked past the cave without slowing. The sound of their passage faded, and then they moved out of range of the monitors. Good. He’d deal with the whole damned Torassian base if he had to, but it would be better to keep a low profile until his transport arrived.

“I don’t want those pirates touching Blue Lion,” Allura said quietly.

“Relax, Princess. They can’t get in thanks to your shutdown code, and they won’t do anything that might damage it. You can bet Dennison knows exactly what that ship of yours is worth.”

“Well I still won’t feel comfortable until I know it’s safe.”

Lotor agreed with her, though he kept that to himself. The pirates knew they’d get the best price from Doom, but they wouldn’t be hunting him just to make that sale. If Dennison was sore over whatever wild story he’d heard from his wife, the man was capable of anything. “I’ll check on Blue Lion tomorrow.”

“Can’t we leave now?” Her voice quivered.

“It’s too far, and the patrols are too close. Maybe by tomorrow they’ll have moved on.”

She let out a small, indignant huff. “The pirates wouldn’t even be a problem if you hadn’t done… whatever it was you did to that woman.”

Was there a hint of irritation in her tone? “No need to be jealous, Allura. The admiral’s wife propositioned me, but I never touched her. That’s probably why she’s mad.”

“I wasn’t… I’m not….” Allura flushed for a moment before regaining her composure. “You’re impossible.”

He didn’t even try to suppress his smirk. “Nothing’s impossible where I’m concerned, princess. Just you wait and see.”


	9. A Nightmare

When night fell, he decided against using the lantern because someone passing by might see the light. Avoiding the Torassians had gone from a matter of convenience to one of necessity, but thankfully Allura didn’t seem to think of them as possible allies in an escape attempt. Maybe she’d rather be with the devil she knew than the pirates she didn’t.

With no light and little else to do, they settled into the sleeping bag early. Lotor checked the proximity alarms one more time and put his datapad away. Tomorrow was going to be a long and trying day, so he willed himself to sleep with the ease of a soldier accustomed to resting whenever he could.

Sometime later, he snapped into wakefulness. He held still, listening for signs of an intruder before realizing that the disturbance was closer at hand.

“No,” the princess murmured. “No, please…”

Lotor froze. She was on her side, her shoulders shaking.

“Can we shore up the western passage? Or dig out another exit?” She tossed her head, a denial of whatever vision her dream offered her.

He set a hand flat against her spine. “Sshhh, Allura. You’re safe.”

Her voice raised in pitch. “I can’t just leave them, Coran. Those people are injured!” She bolted up with a piercing shriek that echoed sharply off the stone that surrounded them.

His arms folded around her before he realized he’d moved, and he spouted some stream of calming nonsense as he patted awkwardly at her back. Lotor didn’t know how to do this. His normal response to an upset woman was to walk as fast as possible in the other direction. But eventually the princess quieted.

She was so small and impossibly delicate, her body still trembling in the dark. There was no threat for him to destroy here, no danger he might sweep her away from. There was only Allura, haunted by some fantasy he could do nothing about. But what if it hadn’t been just a dream? 

The people of Arus had sheltered in the caves beneath their planet during the worst of the bombardments. And now here he was, holding her prisoner in conditions that were bound to stir those memories. He let out a heavy sigh, and soon after, she squirmed in his arms.

Lotor released her, unsure of what he ought to say. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

He should have been relieved. No good would come of them picking at things that happened in the war, so why had he been hoping she’d confide in him? Lotor settled back and closed his eyes. This time, sleep was slow to come.

*** 

They set out early the next day to check on Blue Lion. It was a risk, but Lotor said he wanted to see what the pirates were up to. Allura wasn’t about to complain; it felt too good to get out and stretch her legs in the sunshine. She also wanted to see for herself that her lion was faring well.

He brought their supplies along. The trip to the lion might be too far for them to make it there and back before dark, or maybe he hoped he could talk her into unlocking the emergency mode. If that was the case, he was going to be disappointed. Allura had no intention of _ever_ letting Lotor inside her ship.

The first chunk of the journey passed in sullen silence. She was worried about Blue Lion, embarrassed over her nightmare, and upset at Lotor for capturing her in the first place. And there had also been that kiss. The memory of it made her cheeks feel warm. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about it? She needed something else to concentrate on. “Lotor? How long until we reach the lion?”

He glanced down at his datapad. “Another hour and a half.” 

“Oh,” she said. Allura turned her attention to the trees that surrounded them. “How old do you think this forest is?”

Lotor stopped and turned to her. “Once we’ve seen the lion and put some distance between us and the Torassians, we can talk about the forest or anything else you wish to. But for now, Princess, we ought to be quiet. It isn’t safe to make too much noise.”

He was right, of course, so Allura gave him a nod and set about distracting herself. She looked closely at the leaves on each type of tree that they passed, comparing them to what she was used to on Arus. Next she studied the various types of bark. Once the trees stopped seeming interesting, she shifted her attention to the songs of the birds that surrounded them. Before she knew it, she’d successfully passed at least a half hour without thinking about the slippery heat of Prince Lotor’s kiss.

Allura was so intent on the birdsong that she went wary the instant it silenced. “Um, Lotor?”

“I know,” he said quietly, dropping the pack off his shoulders. He pulled his sword from its scabbard. 

She heard a few loud cracks from the underbrush on either side of their trail, and then five rough-looking pirates stepped out behind them. One of the bunch, a tall man with a gnarled scar trailing over his eye, stepped forward. “Put down yer sword.”

Lotor kept his eyes locked on the man but ignored the command. “Allura, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can to the place where you showed me your game. I’ll meet you there. Do you understand?”

The pirate leader scoffed. She was fairly certain she could find the pond again, but it didn’t feel right to leave him at the mercy of this gang. “I don’t think…”

“Go now,” he said, insisting. “I can’t do what I need to if I’m worried about your safety. 

“Ain’t that a sweet gesture? Yer like to melt my poor heart.” The pirates whooped, and Allura’s blood turned to slush at the sound. A deadly smile spread across Lotor’s face. She decided that yes, she would very much like to run now.

The pirates charged with a ragged cry, and Allura darted away. She thought she was out of danger right until a hand clamped around her wrist. The man that held her was young, but he pulled her from her feet with a swift jerk. She looked behind his knees and saw that somehow, in those few moments, the urbane prince she’d spent so much time with lately had been transformed into a whirlwind of slashing rage.

Allura dug in her pocket, pulling out her small, stolen knife. She stabbed at the man who’d come after her, aiming for the unprotected spot where his light armor split around his knee. There wasn’t much force behind the blow, but the knife punctured the man’s flesh deeply enough to jerk the handle from her grip. He cried out in pain. More importantly, he let her go.

She scrambled away and finally did as Lotor had asked. The sounds of fighting raged on behind her, but Allura didn’t look back. She was too terrified of what she’d see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be dropping back to posting new chapters once a week for the time being. Updating two times a week is taking a little too much time, especially for a project that isn't getting much interest or feedback. But if you're following along, don't worry! I still have nearly thirty chapters of backlog before I hit the part of the story I'm working on now.


	10. Fear and Forgetting

Allura plunged through the trees without taking the time to retrace their route. The stream was somewhere this way, and it was bound to lead her to the pond eventually. She ran until her lungs burned. Then she ran more. Her attention stayed on where to put her feet or when to duck the low-hanging branches, and as long as she stayed in motion she wouldn’t have to think about anything else.

Eventually her traitorous body proved weaker than her determination. She leaned up against a fallen log, taking in great, heaving breaths until her pulse finally slowed. She ought to get moving again soon, but she felt a little uncertain about her direction. That stream had to be out here somewhere, didn’t it? She certainly couldn’t circle back around towards the pirates. _It would be just like me_ , she thought, _to get lost on top of everything else_.

It was nearly impossible to believe she was even in this situation. A week ago she’d been roaming the hills on Arus, enjoying a rare day of leisure from both her pilot training and the small tasks of castle management that Coran let her oversee. Now here she was, stranded on a hostile world without control of her lion. And if that wasn’t strange enough, she was nearly in a panic over what might have happened to Lotor.

She should have been grateful to those pirates for giving her the chance to get away. Sure, Lotor still had Blue Lion’s key, but if he was taken hostage she could try to steal or bargain for it somehow. If the Torassians hadn’t allied with Doom, they might be happy to see Voltron stay in the fight. It shouldn’t matter one bit to her what they did with the prince.

 _It doesn’t matter_ , she told herself, trying to ignore the moisture that built up in her eyes. _I won’t let it_. But then a few minutes later, when he strode out of the trees like her thoughts had summoned him, she suddenly realized that it mattered a lot somehow.

She launched herself off the tree trunk, nearly knocking him down as she stretched up to plant her lips on his. He took in a sharp breath, and after the barest pause he gripped at her hips with both hands, steadying her. When Lotor opened his mouth, her greedy tongue took full advantage.

***

She filled his senses. Allura kissed him like it was all she remembered how to do. His ribs ached and that cut on his arm had likely reopened, but a few quibbling injuries were hardly going to keep him from giving her every bit of his attention.

He pulled her more tightly against him, reveling in the feel of her slight body as it melted in his arms. The kiss was messy and awkward and completely fucking perfect. She made a brief, happy murmur, and Lotor smiled against her mouth, wondering what other sounds he could inspire.

First came a startled gasp as he kissed his way up her jawline to nip at the shell of her ear. Then her breath sped as he splayed a wide hand across her lower back and then slid it lower still.  His mouth returned to hers and Lotor soon lost the thread of the game. He kissed her firmly then gently by turns, with a passion born from years of thwarted desire. There was nothing but this moment for him, nothing but Allura and her hot mouth and her small hands resting lightly on his chest.

Eventually she stepped back, slightly shaking, and regarded him with her wide, blue eyes. Apprehension clawed him back to reality. “Are you going to slap me again?”

“Under the circumstances, that would hardly seem fair.” Allura’s gaze slid down to her feet, and she scuffed one of her boots against the ground.

“It’s a price I’m more than willing to pay,” he said with a shrug, fighting the urge to claim her mouth again. “You can hit me every time if you like.”

Her spine stiffened and her expression went stormy. “This is hard enough without you making fun.”

 _Damn it all to the fiercest of hells_ , he thought. Why did he always have to spoil things? “I wasn’t trying to…” He stretched out his hand to her, and the motion pulled hard enough at the slice in his forearm to draw out a wince.

“Oh, you’re hurt!” As she reached for his injured limb the stiffness bled out of her voice. He tried to wave her off, but Allura was insistent. “Let me see.”

After rolling up his sleeve to inspect the wound, she demanded the medkit and applied a pair of small bandages. He tried stretching the soreness away. “We can’t continue on to the lion today, but before we go to ground, I’ve got something for you.”

The princess’s eyes went wary and his spirits fell. Would she ever be able to trust him? Wordlessly, he reached into the pack and pulled out the small knife that he’d recovered and cleaned. Lotor offered it to her hilt first. Her fingers brushed his as she accepted the blade. “You knew I had this.” The words weren’t a question.

“You needed to be able to protect yourself,” he said, not wanting to make an issue of it. “And those pirates are still a threat. I’ll even give your pistol back in exchange for your word that you won’t try to escape.”

Allura shook her head. “I can’t make that promise. Too much depends on me back home.”

“So be it.” That was, after all, the answer he’d expected.


	11. Open Air

Allura never asked him what happened to the pirates. She was fairly sure she knew. While she found it impossible to sympathize with what they’d done, the wasted lives still saddened her. They must have had parents or spouses or siblings; someone somewhere would mourn for them. But those men had made their own choices, and she wouldn’t have traded Lotor’s life for theirs.

He guided them through the forest, moving fast. Allura was tired and sore, but she kept up the pace. Every mile they traveled took them farther from the search parties that were bound to swarm the area. And now that the Torassians had lost men, they’d be on their guard.

They stopped for a quick rest by a gnarled old tree, and Lotor pulled out his datapad. Allura still felt hopelessly lost. “Shouldn’t we have reached the cave by now?”

“We aren’t going back there.” he said, flicking through a map display. “I found a better spot for the night.”

It was a surprising answer. The cave was hardly her favorite place, but its hidden entrance had already fooled one pair of searchers. She and Lotor were still skirting those craggy hills though, so Allura resigned herself to a long trip with another stuffy hole at the end of it.

As it turned out, she was half right. They walked for another two hours before he gestured towards a low, sloping tunnel and then crouched to head in first. She followed him into the gloom. The tunnel meandered through the hillside, and at the first sharp turn Lotor brought out a small light. He double checked his map each time the tunnel branched.

After one final turn the tunnel widened. A large room opened up before her, but this was no stagnant, sealed-in cave. Fading sunlight streamed in through a massive hole in the ceiling, filtered through leafy branches that stretched over part of the opening. A pool of still, clear water, off to one side, reflected the clouds back at themselves. Allura gaped at the sight.

“We can’t use the light in here,” Lotor said. His eyes followed her as she walked around the space. “And it’s going to be colder. But it’ll do.”

“It’s beautiful.” Her voice went thick with awe. He smirked a little at that, as if he’d chosen this place to please her. A few days ago she might have written the gesture off as manipulative, but now she was just grateful. Any spot so lovely was sure to keep her nightmares at bay.

He tossed her a ration pack, and they sat down to eat. “We’ll need to stay in here until my reinforcements arrive,” he said between bites. “The pirates will be too stirred up for us to make it to the lion.”

Allura bit at the inside of her cheek, trying not to let her disappointment show. She was worried about her ship. She believed it was reasonably safe from the pirates, but her only hope of escape was getting close to Blue Lion again. If Lotor wasn’t going to take her to it, she’d have to come up with some other way.

The sky darkened with a speed that, even after several days here, surprised her. He set his sleeping bag up just under the edge of the rock above, in a space where they’d have cover but still be able to see what passed over them. After they both settled in the bag, Lotor eased an arm across her middle and drew her back against his chest. He was warm and strong, and Allura was too tired to feel guilty about enjoying that. So instead of agonizing about the situation, she rested her head on his bicep and they watched the stars drift by.

After a long and dreamless sleep, she woke to the sound of splashing. Allura sat up and rubbed at her bleary eyes. She caught a flash of motion, turned her head, and then dropped open her jaw in stunned silence.

Lotor stood hip-deep in the pool without a stitch of clothing on. He cupped handfuls of water over himself, and they streamed down his powder blue skin while the sunlight glinted off every drop left on him. Compact muscles rippled through his back and shoulders with each movement. She knew she ought to look away, to give him his privacy. But her gaze fixed on that thin, reflective line where his body met the water.

He turned and flashed her a wide smile. “Care to join me? This feels amazing.” There was none of that teasing drawl in his tone; he just sounded happy. She thought that cave pools must be another thing that they didn’t have on Doom.

“Maybe some other time,” she said carefully.

He shoved out his arm, sloshing a small wave in her direction before he dipped beneath the surface.

***

He dried off by stretching out naked in a sunbeam, and Allura’s face went bright pink before she turned her back. He liked knowing that just the sight of him affected her. Later, once he’d pulled on his pants, she took another look at his arm.

“It isn’t serious,” he said. He had full use of the arm, after all. It would take more than a scratch to slow him down.

She still insisted on cleaning the wound again and smearing it with antiseptic. “You never know. It could get infected, especially out here.”

Her hands were gentle as she worked, so he was hardly going to argue. But once she’d wrapped his arm in too much gauze, he stepped in close and draped it around her narrow waist. “Thank you, Allura.”

The princess looked up at him, her eyes shining. Then her tongue darted out to wet her lips. They were alone and tolerably safe, and best of all, she didn’t seem frightened of him any longer. So of course that was when his datapad started trilling.

Lotor grabbed at the device with his free hand and very nearly threw it against the wall. But if those pirates were close, he had to know. He unrolled the display with a muttered curse, scanning the perimeter alarms he’d planted for any sign of trouble. The alarm readouts were all green, but a priority-coded message flashed across his screen. “Transport Cruiser Daggerstar entering orbit now. Send coordinates for rendezvous.” It seemed his ride was early.

_I wish to hell they’d waited an hour… or better yet three_ , he thought. Now he’d have a long day of work before he could spare any time for Allura. Despite the untimely interruption, he was glad to hear from the ship. He wanted news of the blockade, a cooked meal, and a regular bed in that order. And the sooner he got home, the sooner he could plan his wedding. He lifted his soon-to-be bride and kissed her soundly before setting her back on her feet.

“What was that for?” Allura sounded short of breath, but there was amusement rather than anger in her voice.

“It’s finally time to get out of here,” he said. Lotor typed a reply into his datapad, shifting his attention a little too quickly to see her face go pale.


	12. Daggerstar

She was surrounded by Doom’s soldiers, and yet Allura had never felt more alone. _I’m a princess and a lion pilot_ , she thought as she shrank against Lotor's side. _I should be braver than this_. But when he reached for her hand as they stood aboard the bridge of the Daggerstar, she laced her fingers tight through his.

“The lion ship is loaded and secured, sir.” A young officer approached Lotor with a sharp salute. At the prince’s nod, the man darted a quick look at Allura and went on. “They were very careful with it.”

The officer marched away, rejoining the buzz of activity that surrounded them. She was sure Lotor would take her to see Blue Lion if she wanted, but she decided not to ask him to. The sight of her poor ship bound up and stowed on one of Doom’s transports would only make her feel worse.

The Daggerstar’s captain, a dark-haired man who’d bowed stiffly over her hand when they were introduced, walked back over. “We’re ready to depart, my prince, but what do you want us to do about those pirates? We can turn their base to rubble in under an hour.”

She assumed that Lotor would take swift revenge, but after a long pause, he gave a different answer. “I’ve wasted enough of my time on this rock already. Set a course for Doom. I’ll see that the rest of the Torassian fleet learns what Dennison’s done, and we’ll leave it to them to clean up their own mess.”

The wider band of pirates would, at the very least, kick Dennison out for antagonizing Doom, but that was better than ransacking his base and killing all his followers. It was a surprisingly moderate response, especially coming from Lotor. The captain seemed pleased as well, though Allura wasn’t sure if he minded taking so many lives or just hadn’t thought the insult to his prince worth avenging.

Once they were underway, Lotor escorted her to a large cabin. “I’ll be back later with dinner,” he said, and then he left her there. The security panel beside the door flashed red, but she found it hard to mind that she’d been locked in. It’s not as if she wanted to wander around on a drule military ship. If she had her lion key, escape might still be possible. Without it she felt helpless. Useless. Pointless.

She shook her head fiercely, trying to clear the bleak thoughts from her mind. The people of Arus hadn’t given way to despair even in their darkest days, so neither would she. The best thing to do was keep herself occupied. First, she gave the cabin a thorough search. She spotted a few spare uniforms in Lotor’s usual style, so someone had clearly prepared the space for him. A quick check of the restroom showed a wide selection of toiletries too, which made Allura realize it had been days since she’d last felt properly clean.

She tapped at the privacy lock by the bathroom door and then took a shower, lingering under the spray. The soap had a pleasant, spicy scent that clung to her even after she’d washed away the suds. After a sinfully long time, she finally toweled herself off and went to find something fresh to wear. The clothing options were sized for a taller man, but she finally settled on a sleeveless undershirt and leggings that she covered with a button-up shirt that stretched to her knees. The rest of the cabin held little of interest. There was a low platform bed, a few chairs, and a small desk, but the console on it was code-locked. The drawers and closet were empty apart from the clothes.

Allura wondered if there was some way she might convince Lotor to let her go. But she couldn’t leave without Blue Lion, and turning that over would be an act of treason on his part. Funny that she’d never really stopped to consider his position in the war before now. It couldn’t be easy for him, forced as he was to follow Zarkon’s orders no matter how he felt about things. And while that didn’t excuse his constant attacks on her home planet, she got the sense that if he were in charge, he might make different choices.

She stretched out on the bed, feeling overcome by the strain and exhaustion of these past few days. Maybe Lotor would be back soon. She had no idea what to say to him yet, but she could think about that after she closed her eyes for a few short moments.

***

After an inspection of the ship and a tedious briefing, Lotor ordered dinner for two from the galley. He wasn’t sure what Allura might care for, so he brought a little of everything back to his quarters. He keyed in his lock code and set the tray on a low table by the door. Then his greeting caught hard in his throat.

The princess was in bed, still half asleep even as she was rising. Her damp hair cascaded in gentle waves down her back, and a dress uniform shirt hung loosely over her full breasts. He had once dreamed of something much like this, and just the sight of her in that moment made his cock twitch. But he had little interest in simply possessing her, keeping her locked away as some cool and glittering symbol of his final triumph over Voltron. And damn it all, she wasn’t just a tool to gain Arus’s surrender either, though he wasn’t above using that excuse with his father.

He realized he was staring. “Have something to eat,” he said. “You must be hungry.” Then he grabbed a clean set of clothes and retreated to the washroom. When he reemerged she was seated in one of the chairs, a plate balanced on her knees. Her bare feet were tucked up beside her thighs.

“I guess I don’t get my own bed here, either?” She sounded more resigned than surprised.

Lotor shook his head. “This isn’t my ship, Princess. Too many of the soldiers here are Zarkon’s, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try something. There is no one here I’d trust to guard you.”

She heaved a soft sigh. “I’ll never be safe from your father, will I? No matter what happens next.”

“It’s only temporary,” Lotor said. His tone was almost snappish until he softened it. “With the war ending, I’ll have more time to work against him.”

“Even if this ends how you want it to, he’ll just start some other war on some other planet and send you off to fight that one,” she said. It was a valid point.

Keeping him too busy to stir up trouble was Zarkon’s way, but lately the rest of the empire had been edging towards change. “The court is growing restless, and he can’t continue on as he has without at least some support from the nobles. I’ll see us through this, Allura.” The doubt was plain in her eyes, but that didn’t matter. He was used to having to prove his words. 

They finished the meal in stiff silence. It was the finest fare the ship could provide: fresh greens, soft cheeses, and even a grain dish that included chunks of meat, a treat reserved only for officers and dignitaries. So why did he half wish they were back eating ration packs in the damned cave?


	13. Defiance

Allura spent much of that night staring at the rivets in the ceiling. There were times in the past few days when she’d found it frighteningly easy to forget Lotor was her captor, but speeding towards Doom had to change that. She shouldn’t want to brush snowy wisps of hair away from his face or ask how his cut was healing.

His breaths were deep and steady. She shifted over towards the edge of the bed and then counted to a hundred. When he didn’t respond, she did it again. She went on like that, inching and pausing while he slept peacefully on, until she finally dropped her legs from the side and eased out from under the thin blanket. The cabin was dark, but a soft glow from a panel in the restroom gave her enough light to move around by.

She’d need to be quick, but that wasn’t a problem. Given his mistrust of the crew, there were only a few places Lotor might have hidden her lion key. First she ran her hands along the inside of his boots. They were made of soft but sturdy leather, and the narrow pouch sewn into one cuff was empty. There was nothing in his pants pockets either. Allura held her breath, keeping an eye on the bed as she rolled open a drawer set into the wall. His belt was inside. She found no hidden pockets along the tooled leather, but the large skull buckle felt too light to be a solid piece of metal. And sure enough, her fingers found a faint seam on the back side of the skull.

A moment of extra fumbling made it clear that the belt wouldn’t open easily, so she considered putting it back and waiting for another chance. Allura was tired of playing it safe though. Yes, she’d gotten herself into this mess through her own reckless actions, but that didn’t mean caution was always a better choice. After another glance at the sleeping prince she grabbed the belt in both hands, carried it to the restroom, and closed the door.

The back of the buckle was nearly smooth except for a square panel with no clasp on it. The panel didn’t slide or push open. After several long minutes of wriggling, she managed to pry a corner of the lid loose with her fingernail. And there, in a hollow beneath the sharp-toothed skull, was the key to Blue Lion.

Her whole body felt lighter as she took the key in her hand. She knew that stealing it back was a risk, and Lotor could find it missing at any time. And even if she could get to Daggerstar’s cargo bay, the soldiers on duty would notice her before she roused Blue Lion from its emergency mode. But just holding the key made her feel braver and stronger. She’d never give it up. Not for anything.

Allura’s heart pounded in her chest as she slipped out into the main cabin, but Lotor was still solidly asleep. She replaced his belt and hid the key in her boot, crossing her fingers against the possibility he’d check the belt compartment in the morning. An odd rush of guilt throbbed in her chest as she got back into bed, but the princess ignored it. The key was hers by right. No matter how mixed up her feelings were right now, she wasn’t about to go meekly along with whatever was planned for her.

***

The following day was full of frustrations. The Daggerstar’s technical team had tried to force open Blue Lion against his advice, and three engineers were taken to the infirmary as a result. The captain seemed to blame Lotor for the injuries, acting as though he hadn’t repeatedly warned them not to tamper with the lion.

Then he’d nearly throttled a communications officer when the man told him the ship was under Zarkon’s orders to avoid contact with the blockade fleet. Lotor shoved the whelp aside and placed the call himself, which lead to a humiliating conversation with Commander Cossack. His father had been meddling among the fleet as well, instructing the lot of them to send status reports only to Zarkon himself. He’d been neatly cut out of his own mission, and Lotor had only himself to blame.

As angry as he was, Lotor couldn’t help but be pleased at the end result of his visit to the pirates. Seizing Blue Lion was a major coup for him, and he’d also finally managed to claim his bride. And considering that he was cut off from his normal duties on this cursed ship, there was no reason he shouldn’t spend more of the journey with her.

If Allura was surprised to see him walk into their cabin during the middle of a day cycle, she didn’t show it. She sat calmly in one of the chairs. _She must be bored_ , he thought. He’d left the terminal locked down to keep her from nosing around, but of course that left her with nothing to do. It was just one more thing to make up to her.

He poured two glasses of dark red wine from the carafe on the sideboard, holding the second out to her in invitation.

“Thank you, but I can’t.” She waved the offer away.

“Would you prefer something lighter? I can have another bottle sent up.”

“Oh no, it’s not that,” she said. “Nanny doesn’t like for me to have alcohol.”

Lotor blinked. She was a woman grown, so why were her guardians still so firm in their control over her? “How very fortunate for us that Nanny isn’t here.”

She pursed her lips and then reached out for the glass. “Will you tell me how things are on Arus?”

“I’ll always do my best to answer your questions, Allura,” he said. “But my dear father has ordered my own men not to speak to me about it.”

Her eyes widened. “Maybe that means it’s not going so well for your forces.”

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “The plan depends on Haggar’s new robeast, and they can be unpredictable. It’s more likely that Zarkon wants to downplay my role in the war, though.” Without Voltron Arus’s defeat was inevitable, but he thought it best not to remind her of that. He was here, with the princess, on the verge of getting everything he wanted. For her, he’d try to be gracious in victory.


	14. Why Not?

Lotor spent the afternoon explaining the current situation on Doom, including an overview of which nobles he hoped to sway to his side. The princess absorbed the information quickly enough, and she asked a few questions that showed a keen level of political insight. _Perhaps she’s finally becoming resigned to our marriage_ , he thought. 

It should have pleased him. If she’d seemed this compliant when he first raised the subject, it likely would have. But now the idea of wedding her while she was still less than willing left him with a vague sense of unease. _How have I become such a sentimental fool_? 

And it _was_ the worst sort of foolishness. Lotor knew that, if given the chance, he could make her happy. He intended to shower her with the best of everything: gowns and gems and luxuriously appointed rooms. He’d anticipate her every wish. Arus would be rebuilt as befit the homeworld of an imperial princess, which was something even Zarkon couldn’t disagree with. Then, once he’d overthrown his father and secured his own rule, he’d give Allura strong sons and fierce daughters. There was no reason they shouldn’t have that life.

She sat there, patiently waiting for him to continue, and Lotor realized he’d stopped speaking some time ago. “I’ll order our dinner,” he said.

Her only response was a nod. The food came quickly, and the princess accepted a second glass of wine with her meal. Lotor put the carafe away after that; he wanted both their heads clear tonight. He’d never been one for courting a woman with pretty words, but he had other skills that might sway her.

***

Over dinner he told her a little about his time at Doom’s military academy. His wicked sense of humor brought the stories to life, and Allura was surprised to find herself laughing along at even some of the bawdier tales. She had to admit that she liked sitting here with him. She liked the wine too, though she still wasn’t sure she ought to have had that. But it made her warm and just a little more relaxed, which was a welcome break from the case of nerves she’d been wrestling with all day.

She had spent the whole afternoon second-guessing herself, worried he might storm in at any moment and ask about the key. When he finally did walk through the door she’d schooled her features, but either Lotor hadn’t noticed the missing key or he didn’t want to make an issue of it yet.

It was a big relief, but it was also a sharp reminder of how wildly different their goals were. When they’d been stranded together, she felt beyond the war somehow. The things that had happened between them were, if not exactly a good idea, at least harmless. Now that they were on a Doom ship, it seemed more important to take the implications of spending time with him into account.

Lotor broke off in the middle of a story about a brash young officer that she half-suspected was autobiographical. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. When it looked as if he might press her further, she thought of a less revealing answer she could honestly give. “I think I’m just feeling a little too confined today.”

His brow furrowed as he stood, crossed to his desk, and tapped at the terminal. “Perhaps this will help.”

The far wall of the cabin darkened, starting at the center and rippling outward until the whole surface was a flat, inky black. Then the wall, which she now realized was a massive screen, winked to life with thousands of glittering stars. Allura gasped at the beauty of it. The stars drifted slowly across the screen even as she sorted them into imaginary constellations. She wondered how many of them were stars that she could see from home, regular waypoints made unfamiliar by looking at them from a different perspective.

The overhead lights dimmed as she went for a closer look, stretching a hand out reflexively before catching herself. The last thing she wanted to do was mar this illusion.

“It’s a view from the starboard telescope,” Lotor said, leaning down to speak right into her ear. She hadn’t heard him approach but somehow he was there, close enough she could feel the heat of his body radiating against her back.

Allura’s attention shifted from questions about the scene before her to a very different kind of curiosity. Her skin tingled, almost like he was touching her already. _Why isn’t he touching me already?_ The treacherous thought made her flush.

His lips brushed a spot just beneath her ear. She stretched her neck to the side with a small moan, giving him easier access. Lotor’s big hands landed on her hips and pulled her back tight to his body while he left a scorching trail of kisses down towards her collar. It felt too good to be real.

That tiny voice in the back of her head began to nag at her. “We shouldn’t,” she said even as she arched her back against him.

“Whyever not?” He murmured the words across her skin.

“It’s wrong,” she said, grasping for the last shred of her swiftly fading reason. “We’re enemies.”

Lotor chuckled, making a low noise that plunged from her ears straight down to more intimate places. “And doesn’t that make it all the sweeter to have me burning for you? Desperate for your touch? Reveling in whatever liberties you choose to allow?“

The idea that _she_ might be the one with the power here shocked her to the core. Could she really explore their attraction, the remarkable ways he made her feel, without becoming wholly compromised? Would she dare to try? It was tempting, but there was one thing she wanted to be clear on. “I… I don’t want things to go too far.”

His voice dropped into a huskier tone. “Remember what I told you in the cave?” He paused to take the tender lobe of her ear briefly into his mouth. “I’m not going to take you until you ask me to. Politely. With your prettiest court manners.”

“Oh,” she said softly. He nuzzled at her neck. His hot breath on her skin made it difficult to think, but that was fine. Allura was tired of thinking, tired of trying so hard to be sensible. She hoped to be on her way home to Arus soon in any case, so what could it hurt to indulge herself?

“There’s no harm in pleasure, Princess,” Lotor said, echoing her thoughts. “Would you like me to show you?”


	15. Indulgence

“Yes.” The word was scarcely past her lips before she twisted in his arms, turning her face up for a kiss. Their mouths locked together in a war of heated feints and surrenders. Lotor grabbed her shirt in both hands, and the buttons skittered across the floor of the cabin as they snapped free. She wriggled out of the remaining material, leaving her covered only by an undershirt and thin leggings.

He lifted her, pressing her back against the screen-wall as she wrapped her legs around his waist. They traded frantic kisses while he held her there. She twined her tongue with his, and then, feeling quite brazen, Allura carded a hand through his hair. Her fingers grazed the tip of his pointed ear, and he let out a sudden hiss. 

“Is that… not good?” she asked shyly.

“Very good,” he growled, nipping lightly at her lower lip. He changed their angle slightly, shifting her weight lower on his hips until she settled on his straining erection. “Gods, Allura. You feel so fucking good.”

Blood flushed through her cheeks. He was being coarse again, but that was probably a missish thing to mind under the circumstances. He was hard and thick and pressed _right there_ , and _oh_ , now he was _moving_. Lotor rocked against her, the sweet friction warming her already fevered skin. She sighed, then gasped, then sighed again, and each sound only seemed to stir him further.

_If none of this is sinful_ , she thought, _it ought to be_. Then he rolled his hips and there was no more cause for thinking at all. There was only Lotor’s broad-shouldered frame, stumbling them towards the bed, laying her across it, stepping back to pull off his shirt. And then the prince was there again beside her.

His pale blue skin nearly gleamed in the faint light, and unlike the last time she saw him like this, Allura looked her fill. Of course she could do more than look now. She set a tentative hand on his chest, and he went rigid at the touch. Lotor held himself entirely still as she slid her fingers down, exploring the planes and angles of his body. She brought her hand to rest at the taper of his waist and then looked up into those impenetrable golden eyes.

Tension thrummed between them; the whole room crackled with it. And just as that anticipation became too much to bear, the moment shattered into a storm of bliss and motion. His hands were everywhere. They traced her collarbones, skimmed her sides, stroked boldly over her thighs.

Allura folded her arms around his back. She wanted him closer and he obliged, turning to cage her against the mattress. He cupped at her breast, fingers light and teasing there while he caught her next low moan with a blistering kiss. Then he moved lower to mouth at her stiffening nipple through the layer of fabric between them. A jolt of molten need flooded through her and she cried out, clutching at his shoulders. He halted just long enough to shoot her a wicked smile.

His hands eased beneath the hem of her top, smoothing over skin. Suddenly the undershirt felt too tight, too restrictive, and Allura helped him wrestle it up and off her arms. He looked her over with an air of open lust, but her own desire left her too pleasure-hazed to be embarrassed.

Lotor’s lips returned to her breast and her head spun at the contact. It felt better than anything should, but all too soon she wanted his mouth on hers again. She pulled him back up.

“Feeling greedy, eh princess?” His voice was low and a little amused.

_Oh yes_ , she thought, but she couldn’t quite form the syllables. “Mmm.”

“Good,” he said, somehow catching her meaning. Lotor kissed her hard and then pinned her wrists to the bed. “And tomorrow we can indulge in any sensual urge you care to name. For tonight though, I intend to strip you bare and caress you until you come undone in my arms.”

“Ahh,” she said. It was as close to _yes, thank you, that sounds lovely_ as she could manage.

He hooked his thumbs in her waistband and gave her a questioning glance. Allura hadn’t planned on anything like this, but her doubts had faded along with her sense of maidenly propriety. She gathered her wits enough to nod. 

His eyes widened a fraction, as if he’d expected a different answer, but then he peeled her leggings away. Given the lack of female clothing in the stateroom, she wore nothing underneath. Worry flickered through her, and she felt like he’d exposed more than just her body. Lotor must be used to beautiful women, women with experience who knew exactly how to please him. Could he truly enjoy being with someone like her? Then he slipped a hand between her thighs.

The thrill of it sparked through all of her. He guided Allura onto her side, fitting himself close behind as he continued his explorations. His fingers were gentle but maddeningly insistent, thrumming at her in a slow, steady pace that felt like too much and not enough at the same time. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and jolted her hips back, sealing them closer together while he dropped rough kisses on her shoulders.

She wriggled her bottom against the hard length of him, and Lotor’s hand stuttered over her before regaining its inevitable rhythm. He let out a litany of curses that sounded almost reverent in tone. Then he began to murmur in her ear, his voice low but urgent as he detailed all the other things he’d like to do with her. To her. Even have her do by herself as he watched. Some of those fantasies sounded difficult to carry out, and just hearing them made her feel daring and wild. But there in his arms, driven to impossible heights by the slide of his clever fingers, she thought she might try anything he asked.

Her eyes fluttered shut as she lost herself to sensation. An exquisite pressure built up at her center, pulsing out through the rest of her body in time with Lotor’s attentions. Her hips began to tremble.

“That’s it, lover,” he said, nearly growling the words. “Let me give you what you need.” His teeth grazed lightly along the back of her neck.

Allura shattered. Her world splintered and re-formed and then fell apart again; her whole body shook as he held her tight. She made shameless, keening noises that mingled with the heavy sounds of his breath, and through it all, the pads of his fingers still worked at her sensitized flesh. She squirmed against his hand, fending off a pleasure so bright and pure it almost hurt. Then that miraculous, pulsing wave ripped through her again. It was faster and harder, and this time, Allura screamed.

When she came back to herself his embrace had gentled, and he whispered the kind of soft, sweet things she thought men were meant to say _before_ they got your clothes off. She snuggled at his tautly muscled chest and, feeling tired and sated, fell asleep to the contented rumble of his voice.


	16. The Morning

Several hours later, Lotor found himself faced with a dilemma. His princess was sprawled against him, entirely nude, and their limbs tangled together along with the sheet he’d managed to drag over them before settling in to sleep. He wanted to freeze this moment and live in it for a week. Or possibly three. He also wanted to nudge her to wakefulness and map her lush curves with his tongue. He ran a hand lightly over her hip by way of compromise.

The wallscreen still showed those steadily moving stars, giving him a visual of the journey towards the future that awaited them on Doom. He wondered if the previous evening’s activities had made Allura any happier about their impending wedding. Could she be bribed to the altar by mind-blowing orgasms? Lotor wasn’t sure, but the attempt would surely be its own reward.

She stirred slightly, and he considered putting this new strategy to use right away. It might be better to let her rest, though. They’d reach Doom before the midday meal, and being introduced at court was bound to be a daunting experience for her. And of course King Zarkon would want to gloat over them a little before setting a date for the ceremony. Lotor would do whatever he could to ease the way of course, but his father always did appreciate making a show of things.

Just as he’d made up his mind to leave her alone for the time being, the decision was taken out of Lotor’s hands. The princess stretched and blinked her lovely eyes. He brushed his lips gently over hers but quickly deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth to him, running her tongue along the edge of his lip in a way that had him half-hard before he’d even really touched her. _Gods and demons, woman_ , he thought. _The things you do to me_. He pulled back a little before he felt tempted to try something he shouldn’t.

After the kiss, Allura bit at her lip in that way she seemed to do when she felt embarrassed. “Lotor? There’s something I wanted to ask you. It’s about last night.”

“Oh?” He slipped into a mental inventory of anything he might have said or done to upset her.

“It was amazing,” she said. Her tone went a little misty, setting his mind at ease. “But I wanted to know… is it always like that?”

“No,” he said firmly. “It has never been like that for me.”

His princess smiled shyly and laid her head on his chest while Lotor wondered at his answer. He’d sampled some of the most stunning women in the galaxy, often skillful sophisticates or clever young socialites. But last night was the single most erotic experience of his life thus far, and he had kept his pants on the entire time. _Oh hells_ , he thought, trying to push aside the most obvious reason why. Then a very important implication of her question caught his attention. _Hells_ , he thought again, realizing he ought to be damned to each and every one of them.

“Allura? Have you done anything like that before?”

“Oh no,” she said. “Not ever.”

Lotor was incredulous. “Were the men on your planet all blind? Foolish? Perhaps just unappealing?”

“On Arus,” she said slowly, “And on a lot of the Alliance planets actually, we’re supposed to avoid that kind of intimacy until we marry.”

His mouth dropped open at the very idea. He’d never heard anything so ridiculous, but then again he didn’t spend much time in the social circles of the Galactic Alliance. “Then how do your people learn what they enjoy in bed? Or how best to please a lover?”

“Well there are books and things, and women talk sometimes,” she said shyly. “But I guess it’s mostly expected that a husband and wife will sort all that out between themselves. Some people do go against the convention; it’s just discouraged. Especially for noblewomen.”

_And they call us the barbarians_ , he thought, disturbed by his carelessness. _Perhaps they’re right though. I should have known_. It had been obvious from the start that the princess was less than experienced, but he never took that to mean she’d been entirely chaste. He ought to have been calmer with her, soft and tender instead of rutting at her like some graceless boy. And the things he’d said! Lotor didn’t make a habit of pleasuring virgins, but he was fairly certain you weren’t supposed to tell one you wanted to drench her perfect ass in honey and lick it clean.

When she spoke again, her voice wavered slightly. “Is it bad that I’ve never been with anyone?”

“No, sweetling,” he said, tipping her chin up to gaze into her eyes. “I only wish you’d told me. I would have been more gentle if I’d known.”

“Well I’m glad you weren’t,” she said, managing to sound slightly prim despite the subject.

His cock stirred at both the sentiment and the contrast. “Is that so?”

Allura nodded. “And remember, you promised that today we’d do whatever I wanted.”

“Then I am at your disposal,” he said, dropping into a low, silky tone. He was intrigued by her boldness, especially given what he’d just learned. But he was very, very eager to play along. “What would you have of me?”

“You mentioned something before, and I thought we might try it.” Her eyes darkened, glinting like sapphires in the low light.

Lotor grinned. “I’m sure the galley has an adequate supply of honey.”

“Not that,” she said quickly. “I was thinking of this.” And then she reached down to fumble at the buttons of his fly.

He shucked his pants and briefs in record time. To his surprise she slid down, took him in hand, and dropped a small kiss on the head of his stiffening cock. _Oh gods, yes_. _Yes, please_. _That_. _Forever_. He didn’t remember suggesting anything of the sort to her last night, but given his fondness for it, he very likely had.

She pressed her lips to him, brushing feather-light at his skin. Then she gave him an experimental lick, and Lotor groaned. He hardened like steel as her thin fingers glided over his shaft. She looked up the line of his body, gauging his reaction as she ran her tongue down more of his length. His breath caught hard at the sensation.

When Allura took him into her mouth, his control frayed nearly to its breaking point. She went slow, as if testing the waters, but he was the one suddenly out of his depth. Lotor was still adjusting to the idea of a universe where his proper princess wanted to be naked in his bed; having her tongue sliding — _so goddamn slowly yes right_ — there was better than anything he’d imagined.

Watching her dewy lips surround him was nearly as exciting as the hot, wet feel of it. He wouldn’t last long with the added visual stimulation though. He almost closed his eyes, but there was no way he’d willingly miss a moment of this. Allura began to move faster, perhaps gaining confidence from the recital of foul-mouthed praise that he realized he’d been making aloud.

Her hand gripped lightly at him too, holding him in place as she bobbed her head. He caught her eyes again for a moment, filling his gaze with dark promises of the many things he was going to do to her just as soon as — _oh sweet fucking fuck_ — he recovered from her attentions. His silent message must have been understood because Allura, even with his cock drawn deep in her mouth, flushed scarlet.

And that — _shit_. It was too much. Her hot mouth slicking over him. Her rose-tipped tits against his thighs. Golden strands of her hair trailing over her shoulders. All while the stars spun slowly nearby. “ _Gods_ , Allura, I’m going to —“

Lotor’s hips convulsed, jerking hard as his release flooded through every nerve ending in his body. He was a helpless, quivering mess in the wake of that tide. When he regained some shred of composure she was still kneeling between his knees, and he tugged her up into a languid embrace. He kissed her softly, pleased by the salt-bitter taste of her lips.

He couldn’t say why he’d become so thoroughly beguiled by her; it was one mystery among many where his princess was concerned. She was an enemy he’d go to any length to protect. An innocent with a streak of guileless sensuality. A strong woman who somehow doubted herself at every turn. It’s as if Allura was purpose-built from contradictions.

Her fingers trailed idly over his chest, and his thoughts shifted down another path. There would be time to puzzle out her idiosyncrasies _after_ he spent the rest of the morning with his head clamped between her thighs. He slid a hand along her bare flank, and she trembled.

“I believe it’s my turn,” he said, sliding his fingers down to roll lightly at her clit. She squirmed at the touch. “I’m going to kiss you right here. Work you with my tongue until you come. Then I’m going to do it again. And again. Over and over, until you’re sweaty and thrashing and utterly spent. Would you like that?”

She took one sharp breath and gave him a slow, steady nod. Lotor smiled and eased her onto her back, and then the door chime sounded.

After a stream of truly inventive profanity, he made up his mind to ignore it. But he was still technically on duty even though his responsibilities had been curtailed; he really ought to see what they wanted. _Fuck_. He kissed her quickly and rolled out of bed with a growl. This had better be important, or the person on the other side of that door was about to have the worst of all possible days.


	17. Indescretion

As he stalked to the door, Allura wasn’t sure if he remembered he was naked. “Um, Lotor? Did you want your pants?”

He halted long enough to find a towel to drape across his hips. _Are all the drules so unselfconscious, or is it just the princes_? She barely had time to slip beneath the sheet before he keyed the door open.

The soldier who waited beyond didn’t seem fazed by Lotor’s state of undress, but he kept his eyes carefully on the prince’s face as he stated his purpose. “The captain requests your presence on the bridge, sir. We’re approaching Doom now, and King Zarkon plans to announce the capture of Blue Lion. He’d like a few shots of you and the Daggerstar’s officers to play during his broadcast.

“Yes, fine,” he said sharply, and then he turned to Allura. “You’d better get dressed.” He slapped at the control panel again, shutting the door.

Allura groaned, hiding her face in her hands. “Now the whole ship is going to hear that we were in here… doing things.”

“They were all assuming it anyway,” he said with a shrug. “Why does it matter?”

She didn’t truly care about the opinions of his soldiers, but that didn’t mean she was ready to cast all modesty aside. “I’m accustomed to keeping private things private, Lotor. My reputation is important to me.”

“Ah,” he said, as if this appeal made more sense. “Have no fear on that front, lover. Anyone who speaks disrespectfully to you, or about you, will be dealt with. But if you wish it, I’ll try to be more discreet.” He took one of her hands, turned it over, and pressed a soft kiss to her palm.

“Thank you,” she said. It was hard to stay cross with Lotor while he was touching her, and she wondered if he’d figured that out yet. 

He took a brief shower before pulling on clean clothes, and all too soon he was ready to leave. His newly donned uniform bothered her a little. He was quite dashing in it, but this was Lotor as she was used to seeing him. It was how he looked across a battlefield rather than a bed.

“I’ll return as soon as I can to escort you to the surface,” he said. Then his voice took on that sultry edge that had always intrigued her. “And tonight, once we have some time alone, we can pick up where we left off.”

Her mouth went dry at that, and the prince just smirked as he walked out the door.

Allura rose, washed, and put on her freshly laundered flight suit. Then she brushed out her hair and rewound her braids. The lion key was tucked deep in her boot, and she had the little knife, too. Maybe she’d have a chance to use them and escape. But if she ended up before King Zarkon instead, she hoped she wouldn’t embarrass herself.

She was also concerned about Lotor’s wedding plans. He talked about their betrothal as if it was as good as done, but surely someone had to ask for her agreement. Would Zarkon make an issue of it right away, pressuring her to accept whatever marriage settlement they offered? If only she had more time to think it all through!

It had seemed like such an easy thing to tell Lotor she’d never marry him. She still didn’t want to, especially not like this. Whatever understanding they were coming to would be wrecked forever, and she’d resent him for the rest of her days. But if it was truly a choice between becoming his wife and watching her planet burn, there would be no contest. The good of Arus would always come first. Above even the doubts in her own heart.

Of course that might be for the best; lately her heart hadn’t been the most reliable guide. Back when she and Pidge had started that disastrous patrol, Allura would have sworn she was falling for Keith. He was handsome and brave, and he was a hero to her people. How could she not be a little in love with a man like that? But she’d barely thought about him in the past few days. Keith had certainly been the farthest thing from her mind last night. And again just now.

Thinking back over the things that had happened, the things that she’d done, left her flustered. It was hard to believe she’d been so wanton. Everyone back home would be disappointed if they found out she was… _consorting_ … with Lotor, but she didn’t regret it one bit. The things they shared were nobody else’s business, after all. She probably did owe thanks to Romelle for telling her all those dirty stories; some of the details had proved helpful this morning. _Maybe Lotor’s the one who ought to thank my cousin for that_ , she thought with a giggle.

But Romelle’s stories, told late at night in hushed whispers, had really only been about the mechanics of how two people might be together. Nothing prepared Allura for the reality of it, that feeling of falling and flying at the same time. Of someone who could break you gently into pieces while holding you together. And then there was an even greater revelation: that she could find a similar kind of satisfaction in driving Lotor to those same heights.

It made sense that Romelle had never said much about those things; Allura couldn’t find the right words for them either.

Desire and duty and lust and love. The future that loomed before her and the one she’d once thought she wanted. They were all so mixed up in her head. It was almost a relief when the door chime rang again and she could just go back to reacting to things for a while.


	18. Before the Throne

Later, in the cargo bay, the captain of the Daggerstar tried unsuccessfully to gather his guts off the polished metal floor. Lotor stood nearby, wiping sops of gore from his blade.

Things on the bridge had gone just as expected for one of Zarkon’s propaganda pieces. The prince and the captain had strolled among the duty stations as the ship arrived in orbit, pointing out things to one another as if they’d actually worked together on the voyage. It seemed to go on forever, but that was typically how Lotor felt about these things. Then they all went down to get some shots of the lion ship.

Blue Lion was there in its cargo restraints. The sight should have swelled his chest with pride, but instead he just felt grateful that his princess had been spared this. As they circled the lion, Lotor gave a bare-bones account of its capture. He didn’t mention Allura at all; he wouldn’t have her involvement spun into some lurid tale before he had his chance to explain her presence to the court. After an endless set of recordings, he’d finally had enough. He was ready to collect Allura and take her down to Doom.

The captain of the ship let out a belly laugh and told him the prisoner had already been seen to. She was on the surface by now. The imbecile actually clapped Lotor on the shoulder when he said it, as if misappropriating his princess was some clever feat that any man could hope to survive.

Lotor’s sword flashed out of its scabbard, disemboweling the captain in one smooth stroke. The soldiers around him gawped like they’d never seen death before. After cleaning his blade, he walked calmly to a small fighter ship docked nearby. The pilot was smart; he began keying in the engine codes as soon as the prince set foot on the gangway. And smarter still, he exited the fighter without question when Lotor waved him away.

It took twelve long minutes to make landfall. Normally he’d have spent the time raging against both his father and his misbegotten fate, but those feelings were worse than useless now. Fury settled in his gut like blocks of solid ice. They filled him up, leaving just enough room for a sharp splinter of fear to lodge between them.

He had brought her to this. It was all his doing. He’d been so focused on what he wanted, on his plans to achieve it, that he had neglected to consider the risks. Of course Zarkon would try to thwart him. The man wasn’t capable of anything else. If he had a few more years, even a few more _months_ , Lotor could challenge his father head on. But his factions weren’t ready yet; the tentative web of intrigue he’d woven wouldn’t support the weight of civil war.

If his father refused to see reason, there were two bad options. He could act out of turn and destroy the work of a lifetime, or he could leave Allura to face this menace on her own. _Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that_.

***

The audience chamber fell silent when Lotor walked up to the massive throne. King Zarkon was perched there as usual, but Lotor’s attention fixed firmly on the woman at the center of this travesty.

Allura wore her poise like armor as she stood, straight-shouldered and clear-eyed, before his father. Her wrists had been clamped into delicate silver manacles, which was an indignity Lotor vowed to take out on Zarkon’s hide someday. She gave off an air of regal composure despite the unfriendly atmosphere, holding her fear in check by sheer determination. Lotor had never seen a more impressive sight.

She gave him a small nod as he took hold of her elbow. _She thinks I’ll be able to fix this_. The thought seared him.

“Ah, Lotor. How good of you to join us. I was just about to sentence your pretty captive.” There was a note of glee in Zarkon’s raspy voice.

“Father,” the prince said. “I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. I didn’t bring her here as a prisoner; Allura is going to be my wife.”

A few startled gasps broke from the crowd, but every voice fell silent when the king burst into raucous laughter. The sound of his vile mirth echoed through the hall. “The war is all but won since Arus no longer has Voltron to protect it. There’s no reason to marry her now,” he said.

“Our wedding will end the fighting more quickly, but I’d want her as my bride in any case.” Lotor struggled to guard his temper.

“I guess I can’t fault your taste,” the king said, dragging his eyes down Allura’s slender form. “But will she even have you?”

Of course his father would have to bring that up publicly, airing his personal affairs in front of everyone. Lotor tried to think up some way to excuse Allura’s reluctance when, the princess grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Yes,” she said, raising her voice so that it would carry above the clink of her wrist chains. “I will.”

Lotor’s pulse thudded hard in his chest. _She would have done it. She said she’d marry me_ , he thought. _Hells above and below, we could have had everything_. Snippets from a happy future flashed through his mind, but he let them slip by. He already knew what his father’s response would be.

“Well I won’t allow it,” Zarkon said, letting out another guffaw. “If you wanted the girl so badly, my boy, you should have talked her around back when Doom might have benefited from the alliance. Your marriage is a coin we can only spend once, and I don’t intend to waste it.”

The edge of Lotor’s vision blurred with a red haze. _Do not attack him_ , he reminded himself. _Not now. Not here in the seat of his power_. “Father, I really must insist…”

King Zarkon cut him off. “Enough! I’ve made my decision. If you weren’t so lust-addled I might let you keep her for a while, but that isn’t a good idea after all this talk of marriage.” Zarkon waved an arm at the guards, and they began to advance even before he gave the order. “Take her to the Pit of Skulls.”

Allura’s mouth dropped open, and Lotor gathered her briefly into his arms. He whispered three soft words and pressed a kiss to her temple before the guards took her away.


	19. The Pit of Skulls

“ _Courage, my princess!_ ” 

The words jangled fitfully through her mind. What had Lotor meant by them?

_He let them take me_ , she thought, still not quite believing things had happened that way. _He stood by and watched as they brought me here to die_.

Allura scrabbled over the shifting bone beneath her feet. She moved slowly, struggling to keep her balance. The guards had tossed her off the side of a transport skiff nearly a half an hour ago, and she’d landed in a pile of ribcages. Falling among the jumbled-up skeletons was not an experience she cared to repeat. At least they’d taken the wrist cuffs off first. Apparently King Zarkon might treat a woman’s life as if it was less than nothing, but he drew the line at wasting a fancy set of manacles.

If there was one bright spot in being tossed into the Pit of Skulls, it was that the key to Blue Lion was still hidden in her boot. Zarkon’s hasty revenge just cost him his only hope of controlling Voltron. If she escaped somehow, Allura might have a chance to reclaim the lion ship. And if she didn’t then the control key would be lost too, hidden among the crumbling remains of King Zarkon’s victims. It was a grim thing to think about, but at least that monster would never be able to turn her planet’s defender against the rest of the galaxy.

The sky above her had a poison-green tinge, and dry bones clacked as Allura slowly picked her way off the massive pile. She reached a trail of clear earth and followed it towards the cliffs that edged the pit; that seemed as good a direction as any.

It was oddly quiet except for the occasional skitter of bone shifting against itself. The sound was probably just the piles settling, but Allura kept her small knife in her hand just in case. She tried to focus on the things she could control: when to walk, when to rest, and which turning to take whenever her pathway branched. That kept her mind off Lotor for a while.

He’d let her get hauled away, and Allura didn’t even blame him. He was, after all, a coldly practical man, especially when it came to saving his own skin. And no matter how much he cared for her, he couldn’t have fought the entire royal guard on his own. Zarkon was the one person in the galaxy with any real power over the swaggering Prince of Doom, so of course Lotor wouldn’t cross his father. Of course he wouldn’t risk everything for her sake. She’d never expect him to act any differently, so why did she feel so abandoned?

The princess moved forward, heading steadily towards those cliffs. If she could just get to the edge of the pit, maybe she could find a way out.

***

Lotor shoved back from the grimy barroom table, nodding a farewell to the sycophants that sometimes referred to themselves as his friends. There was a time when their pathetic intrigues had seemed amusing, and he’d enjoyed watching them scramble for ways to earn his favor. Tonight their company held no appeal. He was only here because he always pursued this sort of dubious entertainment after finding himself on the wrong side of one of Zarkon’s plots. But now he buttoned his wine-soaked jacket, confident that he’d made enough of a spectacle to put off his father’s spies.

The prince ambled through the castle district for a quarter of an hour, humming a mournful drinking song until he was certain that no one followed him. Then he straightened his posture and consulted his datapad. _There_.

He donned the signs of intoxication again for just long enough to commandeer a hover-skiff from a nearby guard station. The duty officer gave him a sympathetic look. The incident would certainly end up in the station’s nightly report, but the guards had a longstanding habit of giving way to Lotor’s whims. Even if they eventually realized he was up to more than his usual level of self-destructive behavior, it would be too late to stop him.

_This is madness_ , he thought. He was going to do it anyway. He would not let his princess be consigned to an agonizing death among the bones, especially since she’d only been condemned as a way of wounding him. Allura had consented to marry him in front of Zarkon and half the nobles of the Empire; he wouldn’t abandon her now. She was his, or at least she’d said she was willing to be, and only a sniveling coward would accept defeat while his woman was in danger.

Lotor steered the skiff towards the Pit of Skulls as the beacon on his datapad blinked a steady accusation. _Why hasn’t it moved yet_? The prince put on speed.

He pushed the puttering engine to its limit, racing beneath the cloud-ridden sky as lightning flashed in the distance. As if he needed another complication. There was no clear place to land in the Pit, and he couldn’t hold the skiff steady and pull Allura into it at the same time. The only option was to bring the craft down in a spot that was mercifully close to the beacon.

Barren gravel crunched beneath the landing skids as Lotor wrestled with his instincts. He wanted to track her, to _hunt_ her. _Right fucking now_. But a storm was coming, so he took two minutes to set the open skiff’s roof and weather shielding in place. Only then, once he was sure he’d fitted it correctly, did he give way to the need that had seared through his blood since the moment Allura was removed from his sight.

He jogged the twenty meters to the access shaft and cleared away the pile of debris that hid it from casual observation. The hinges had gone stiff with age, letting out a creaky protest as he wrenched the hatch open. These tunnels had been built long enough ago that he wasn’t sure if even Zarkon remembered them, but the motion lights still flicked on as Lotor descended the ladder. A thick layer of dust coated the rough-hewn floor. He’d gone in a similar tunnel once, just to confirm its existence after he’d found a fragmentary report on these pathways into, and more importantly out of, the Pit. This one followed the same pattern: a long, straight hallway with no branches and no doors except the one at the end.

Some clever builder had cut out a solid piece of rock to use as the door itself, making the portal almost impossible to see from within the Pit. The tunnel side had a spyhole and a push bar, but it took several long minutes for Lotor to shove the door open far enough to admit him. A counterweight system began pulling the door shut once he was through. He quickly wedged a rock into the gap, not trusting the disused tech to reopen from the Pit side.

With their exit route secured, he checked his datapad again and set off for the beacon.


	20. The First Escape

As he rounded the last curve of rock, Lotor came to a halt. His princess was here. Alive. And about eight meters up the face of the cliff. She perched there, clinging close against the wall and hitting at it with what looked like the hilt of that small utility knife she’d stolen just after he captured her. Was she chipping out handholds? _Gods_ , he thought. _I came all this way, but she’s damn near to saving herself_.

He approached carefully, not wanting to startle her into taking a nasty fall. Stormclouds rumbled at the western horizon. After a few more bashes with the knife hilt she picked her way down the cliff, probably ready to rest for a time. Once both her feet were safely on the ground, Lotor broke his silence. “This is an impressive start, princess, but I thought you might appreciate a ride.”

Allura spun, and her eyes widened with shock. _Did she think I’d given up? That I’d just leave her here_? Before he could find his way to taking offense, she ran to him. Her arms went around his waist, her cheek pressing lightly at his chest. It didn’t matter what she’d thought. He was here now; he would take care of things.

When she pulled out of the embrace, he waited for her to speak. Did she have words of thanks or even affection for him? Perhaps a reproach for bringing her to Doom in the first place? The moment drew out in his mind, as if something precious hung on what she’d say. Then Allura opened her mouth. “You smell like a winery.”

Lotor blinked. “I likely spilled half the contents of one on the floor tonight,” he said. “I was watched, Allura. I couldn’t come for you until I was able to slip my father’s spies.” 

She nodded, so perhaps she understood. Maybe Allura would forgive him more easily than he’d forgive himself for this debacle. “But this place is enormous. How did you find me?”

“I slipped a tracker in the sole of your boot on that first day. When you fainted,” he said, gesturing at his datapad. "That's also how I got to you so quickly after you fled from the pirates."

The princess furrowed her brow at that, but apparently decided not to protest the invasion of privacy. It was a fortunate choice considering that Lotor had no intention of apologizing for it. He would do whatever he deemed necessary to keep her safe, and he didn’t particularly care if she minded. But all she said was, “Can we get out of here?”

***

She sat quietly at Lotor’s side while he piloted the skiff through the pattering rain.

He’d betrayed his father for her. The weight of it sat uneasily on Allura, like a heavy cloak dragging at her shoulders. It was one thing to spare her in small, subtle ways, to concentrate fire away from Blue Lion in battle. But King Zarkon had ordered her death. Once he found out she’d been freed…

“Lotor?” Her voice sounded small and impossibly young. “What happens now?”

“It’s time to do what I should have from the start: get you as far as possible from Doom,” he said. She let out a small sigh. When he heard the relief in it, his tone went sardonic. “Oh, I thought about secreting you away somewhere, hiding you until I’ve managed to destroy my father. But my allies aren’t ready yet and my most reliable people are all on the blockade. I can’t protect you and fight Zarkon at the same time, so it’s best to send you to the only people in the galaxy who have a chance of looking after you.”

Homesickness lurched through her. “You mean…”

“Yes, Allura, you’re going back to Arus.”

She wanted to throw her arms around his neck. Or maybe kiss him. Both of those things were probably bad to do to someone while they were flying though. “Thank you.”

Lotor kept his eyes on the looming facade of Castle Doom. 

Later, when they landed on the outskirts of the city, he dug through the skiff’s supply box and handed her a long overcoat with a deep hood. “Put this on,” he said, shrugging into an identical garment.

“It’s not raining that hard,” she said, but she did as she was told.

“There’s more in our rain than water.”

Allura shuddered as they left the skiff. She thought back to the Bone Pit, realizing for the first time that none of the skeletons had any flesh left. As he led her to a door near the landing pad, she tucked her hands deeply into the sleeves. They rushed inside, and the princess tried to keep any moisture from her skin as she peeled off the coat. When the drips of rain hit the tile entryway, they hissed.

“Our pilots avoid flying in this kind of weather unless its an emergency, so we can’t steal you a ship until the storm passes,” Lotor said, tapping away at his datapad. “It’s going to be a few hours. Doom’s fighters are slower than what you’re used to, and once you reach Arus you’ll need to slip through the blockade.”

Her greatest hope was probably futile, but Allura had to ask. “Can’t I just take Blue Lion?”

He shook his head. “Using a fighter will keep your escape secret for a few more days, and I need that time to prepare.”

“Oh,” she said sadly.

The prince took her hand then, skimming his thumb over her knuckles. “If anything goes wrong, if we’re spotted, I’ll get you to the lion and the consequences can be damned.” His expression was utterly sincere. 

_Oh Lotor,_ she thought, looking up into his golden eyes _, I wish you hadn’t told me that_.


	21. Stormy Weather

Lotor had set up the small house several years ago, aiming mostly to have a personal space outside of the castle and away from his father’s spies. Now he watched, suddenly wary, as the princess took in their surroundings.

The main room was arranged entirely for his comfort, with low benches and overstuffed pillows. A bar with a selection of liquor from across the galaxy dominated one wall. There was a rack of weapons near the door, and others hung from strategic spots on the walls. Lotor believed in being prepared. There was a kitchen nook he rarely used, a large bathing chamber he used often, and a bedroom that was almost entirely taken up by his oversized bed.

Despite the comforts that were available, he didn’t bring women here. He’d never brought anyone here apart from the few officers who were most deeply in his confidence. He checked the weather scanner again and set it to alert him when the rain cleared off. Then he turned to his guest. “You should sleep while you can.”

“All right,” she said. He began tapping at his desk terminal, hoping to get in contact with the few local officials he’d need to rely on in the coming days. But he was very aware when she stopped in the doorway and turned back to him. “Come and lie down with me?”

Lotor clicked the terminal off and rose. There were other things he ought to be doing, but soon Allura would be far beyond his reach. He could spare a little time for her now.

***

The bed was comfortable and the sheets were crisp, but Allura couldn’t relax. Lotor spooned at her back with his hand on her hip; she didn’t think he was sleeping either. Everything about this seemed wrong.

There were plenty of ways she might force his hand, leaving Blue Lion as their only option. Was she really prepared to do that? He’d just saved her life, and spoiling his rebellion before it began seemed like a poor way to repay him. She tried to remind herself that he was the one who’d started this. He’d kidnapped her and stolen her lion ship. She owed him nothing. But no matter how the facts lined up, that didn’t change the way she felt. 

Far too many lives were at stake though. She couldn’t gamble her planet’s future on the chance that Lotor would defeat his father. And if Zarkon stayed on the throne, he’d be that much more determined to crush anyone who stood in his way. The galaxy would need Voltron more than ever. She rolled to face Lotor, dropping all pretense of sleep.

He ran a hand through her hair. “Something troubling you, princess?”

Allura bit at her lip. “I’m scared.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said. He sounded so sure. “When we leave here, you’ll be in one of my cloaks. The guards won’t dare to question me, and they’ll barely be able to see you under the hood. I’ll walk you right to a fighter and input a code to make your ship scan as a high-clearance courier. That ruse will keep you safe until you get in range of your team.”

It certainly sounded like a good plan. “I’m not worried about reaching the hangar. Or about flying. I’m afraid of what might happen to you after that.”

Lotor raised an eyebrow in mock alarm. “Why Allura, are you concerned about me? Can you finally be falling prey to my charms?”

“Maybe one or two of them,” she said gravely, glad for once of his tendency to steer their conversations toward teasing her.

His lips twisted into that self-satisfied smirk, the one that always made her think he was up to something, and then he _pounced_. Suddenly she was on her back in the big, soft bed, and their lips met. The kiss was as solid as the weight of him on top of her. Allura twined her arms around his sculpted shoulders.

Kissing him felt as natural as breathing. The first few times it had been an indulgence, a guilty pleasure she could enjoy and then carefully avoid thinking about. He’d slipped through her defenses though, and she wanted more. It was a hard thing to admit to herself. Especially now.

She pushed him gently back anyway, determined to be honest about her feelings. “Lotor?” she asked, trying to tamp down the quaver of raw emotion in her voice. “Will you make love to me?”

His eyes widened, and he leaned in for another kiss. This one was slow and deep. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to move, to touch her, to begin stripping off the layers of clothing between them. But still he only kissed her. After a time he pulled away. “Ask me again when it doesn’t sound like you mean that as a goodbye,” he said.

Moisture welled up in her eyes. “But I thought…”

“I want you, Allura,” he said. “I want you so badly that I’m damned well going to regret this tomorrow. But I won’t have our first time feel like it’s going to be the last.” He turned them then, pulling her snug against his chest. “Once this is all over, and when Zarkon is dead, I will come for you.”

She nodded against him, not trusting her voice. He was so confident in the thought of his victory, so certain this would all work out the way he wanted. But how would he feel about her if he knew what she was planning?


	22. In the Hangar

An hour and a half later they walked through the gates of the hangar, and as he’d predicted, nobody looked too closely at the hooded figure at Lotor’s side. The prince outranked every man and woman on this planet, save for one, and no soldier of Doom would pry too closely into his affairs without cause.

Lotor paid no attention to the guards beyond ensuring that they kept to their places once they recognized him. He was too busy replaying that interlude with Allura. Perhaps he ought to have done as she’d asked. Part of him wanted to revisit that decision right now, to back her into one of the empty repair bays and bury every fear and worry that was in him between her creamy thighs. He had dreamed of having her in half a hundred different ways. In his fantasies she was eager. Passionate. Sometimes playful. Tonight she’d been somber and a little sad, as if she wanted him mostly because she thought they wouldn’t have another opportunity to be together.

_To every one of the hells with that_ , he thought, brushing Allura’s doubts aside. _And at least she’s given me more motivation to deal with Zarkon quickly_. He snaked an arm around her waist, easing it beneath the small satchel they’d packed with her helmet, her pistol, and a generous supply of provisions.

She gazed up at him from beneath the hood, her eyes bright with worry. Yes, he was risking their cover. No, he didn’t particularly care. The soldiers would mind their own damn business if they knew what was good for them. He steered her through the hangar, walking past the ground transports and open shuttles the staff used for local travel. He wanted a fighter with long-range engines, fully powered and up-to-date on all its inspections. When they reached a bank of likely prospects, he left the princess’s side to inspect the service terminal.

There, close behind him, she let out a shallow gasp. _Ah, I guess she’s spotted Blue Lion_. The fighters were on the opposite side of the hangar from the research division, but the lion ship was too big to be stored anywhere other than the central hub. He knew Allura was sick at the thought of leaving her ship behind, but it couldn’t be helped. She might as well get one last look at it before leaving the planet.

The first fighter he checked was still working through its maintenance cycle, and the second had been flagged for a blown nav chip. The third ship had gone out recently but looked green across the board. He dipped into its submenus for a more thorough check when he heard Allura’s voice ring out. “Blue Lion: activation sequence zero-beta-four. Initiate emergency start!” 

And then Blue Lion roared. The sound was nearly deafening in the enclosed space, and Lotor whirled towards it. His princess gazed at him with a forlorn expression. The hangar froze around them, time slowing to a crawl while he realized just how neatly she’d maneuvered around him. Fury warred with admiration and finally coalesced into kind of cold acceptance. His plans and options had all been fused into one inevitable outcome.

Allura stood still, watching for his reaction. He drew his sword and took a step towards her, towards the lion. “Run, damn you!” he cried.

They sprinted towards Blue Lion, sixty meters away and raising to its haunches. The guards looked at each other, slow to react. _If she makes it out, father will skin them all_. He let out a wild laugh, realizing that no matter what happened to him now, he no longer had to play the game of predicting King Zarkon’s reactions. Allura threw off the cloak as she ran, and finally one of the soldiers showed some initiative. “It’s the princess! She’s escaping!”

At last the guards reacted. One pulled a rifle, shouldered it, and began to line up his shot. Standard procedure for a hangar incursion was to use full-strength blasts rather than stuns, so Lotor decided it was time to add to their confusion. At forty meters he dropped a few paces back. “Soldiers, to me! Zarkon wants her alive!”

Some headed his way immediately while others looked to the duty officer, who was busy shouting into a comm panel. Lotor had twenty-five meters to go, and the soldiers weren’t far behind. His blood pounded hard through his veins. There was an ever-increasing chance she was going to pull this off.

Allura skidded to a stop before Blue Lion and dropped her satchel. She sank to the ground, adjusting something in her boot while presenting a smaller target. Ten meters. Then five. He pulled up beside her and fumbled at his belt clasp, stopping when he felt her hand on his arm. Lotor looked up and there, in her opposite palm, was the lion key. At some point in the past few days she had taken it from him. _Gods and fucking demons_. He’d spent all this time knowing that those who underestimate her do so at their peril, and he was somehow still among them. If he could give her a year and a hundred competent men, Allura could probably defeat his father on her own.

He pulled her in with one arm and gave her a bruising kiss before turning to face her enemies. The nearest guard faltered, finally understanding that she’d be facing the prince’s sword rather than backing him up. At least the woman showed the wit to know she couldn’t challenge him alone, waiting for help rather than rushing in to die. If her friends were half that bright, they might make it an interesting fight before he fell.

“What are you doing?” Allura’s voice held a note of panic. “Get in!”

Lotor kept his sword at a guard position but turned his head. The princess was halfway up to the hatch in Blue Lion’s belly. His understanding of the situation jolted into a new and startling track. _She wants me to go with her? To Arus?_ What the hell could he do there? 

He’d be stranded. Cut off from all his supporters. He’d also be surrounded by the cursed Voltron Force. _Fuck it_ , he thought. _It’s better than dying here, and it will be worth it just to see the expression on Keith’s face when I walk into the castle at her side_.

He sheathed his sword and swung up to grab one of the handholds on the lion’s leg.


	23. Blue Lion

Allura scrambled into the cockpit of Blue Lion, feeling instantly at ease behind the familiar controls. There was no time for a full diagnostic rundown; she’d just have to hope that the drule hadn’t damaged anything vital while transporting the ship. The hatch sealed shut with an audible clang, and Allura got the lion moving while Lotor buckled himself in the jump seat behind her.

Blue Lion loped towards the exit as the hangar doors slid slowly together. Allura was packing enough firepower that they couldn’t contain the lion for long, but any delay would give Doom time to get more ships in place to fight her.

Soldiers scattered before them as they picked up speed, and the doors sealed just behind the tip of Blue Lion’s tail. The princess tapped out a firing sequence and the lion twisted, sending a barrage of its shoulder missiles into the closed door of the hangar. After the explosion, the smoke, and the satisfying boom, the hangar was entirely blocked by a twisted heap of sizzling debris. At least none of the ships in there would be a problem.

The lion launched into the sky. A wing of fighters flew by and strafed its left flank, but the shots bounced harmlessly off Blue Lion’s shielding. Then an alert screamed out from the console. The massive laser cannons perched on Castle Doom had just come online, and they had a target lock on her position. Allura sent the lion into a short dive, scattering flares that fouled the castle’s first shots. She jammed the control sticks forward to gain distance from those cannons while throwing in a few evasive maneuvers.

This was the part of flying that Allura loved the most. It wasn’t the fighting exactly, more the challenge of timing her moves so that she and Blue Lion acted as one. She liked that interplay of attack and reaction, the thrill of making adjustments and executing a winning strategy. Her combat style might never be as refined as the rest of her team’s Alliance-trained precision, but she worked hard and was able to contribute.

The fighters returned, and this time they brought friends. Two full squadrons raced towards her. She kicked off her claw missiles as soon as the ships hit her range, and three of the fighters took direct hits. They spiraled down to the surface, smoking as they fell.

“Nice shot,” Lotor said dryly. She startled for a moment before aiming Blue Lion to break from Doom’s atmosphere. Her only regular passenger was Keith, who rode along sometimes during training to evaluate her progress. Flying with her commander was daunting; she never quite made the impression she hoped to. But Lotor had never seen lion combat from this vantage point before, so he was more likely to judge her results than her amateurish technique.

Was it awkward for him to watch her take down his soldiers? Allura wasn’t about to ask. She supposed that they were technically the King’s soldiers, and Lotor might have fought some of these same troops if he’d tried to claim his father’s throne. War was a complicated thing; she wished that neither of them had ever been forced to wage it.

There were several large ships in orbit above the planet, but the frigates and cruisers kept their distance, apparently wary of provoking an attack from Blue Lion. Fighters boiled out of their cargo bays in a futile attempt to slow her down, but if she couldn’t outrace a fighter in open space, she might as well turn her lion key over to Zarkon for good. She spotted the Daggerstar and fought off the urge to show it what her ship was really capable of. It was time to go home.

The navigational console got Blue Lion’s snout pointed towards Arus, and the princess set the interstellar flight controls. A blue plasma coma surrounded them as they streaked into the void like a giant, feline comet. Only then, when they were safely beyond pursuit, did Allura slump back in her chair and begin to wonder what in the world she could say to the man riding reluctantly behind her.

Even at top speed, the trip was going to take more than a day. It was a long time to sit in close quarters with someone who had to be fuming at her right now.

***

Once Doom was no more than a fading speck in the distance, Allura turned her seat around to face him. Her expression was calm and controlled, as if just sitting in the lion made her more self-assured. They stared at each other for a very long time before she spoke. “Sleep or fight?”

“What?” Lotor was left feeling like he’d missed something. Of course he’d missed a lot of things in the past few hours, so that wasn’t hard to imagine.

“We have thirty-two hours before we get to Arus, and we’ve barely had any time to rest,” she said quietly. “So would you rather sleep first or yell at me?”

“Why would you think I intend to yell at you?” If anyone deserved reproach, he ought to start with himself. Allura had never promised to support his scheme. He put her heart’s wish right in front of her, given her a clear opportunity, and then assumed she wouldn’t seize it. It was a miscalculation.

“Well for starters, I kind of broke your revolution.”

Lotor sighed, swiping a hand through his mussed hair. “I’m not sure you fully appreciate what’s at stake here.”

Color flooded her cheeks. “Zarkon killed my father, reduced most of my homeworld to rubble, and wants to enslave the people I’m responsible for. I know the stakes better than anyone.”

“Yes, Allura,” he said through gritted teeth. “But as much as you love it, Arus is just one world. It’s the twelfth world, in fact, that Zarkon’s sent me to subdue, and his generals have taken hundreds more. My father is like a spoiled child who’s grown accustomed to wrecking his toys. He squanders the resources of each fresh conquest, forcing his victims to mine every valuable thing off each planet in turn.”

“After years of doing his bidding, you’ve decided to care about all this now?”

“No,” he growled. “I’m not certain I _do_ care, at least not in the way you mean. But our system isn’t stable. We can’t keep expanding forever, wasting money and lives on worlds that are as ruined as Doom by the time we’re through. Our scientists keep telling Zarkon that, and he keeps handing them over to Haggar to be made into robeasts. He won’t permit dissent even for the good of the Empire.”

She pursed her lips. “And you were going to be a kinder dictator?”

“A smarter one in any case.” Lotor’s shoulders slumped and his chest felt tight. “I don’t know why I’m trying to explain myself when you can’t possibly understand my point of view.”

“You’re right,” she said. Her tone took on a harsher edge. “There’s no way I could know how it feels to be tricked and taken to a hostile planet as a part of someone else’s scheme. Separated from everyone and everything I know. Facing an uncertain future with a person who claims to care about me but also robs me of my choices. How would I ever understand that?”

Well when she put it like that… _Hells_ , he thought. _I am being such an ass_. “Would it help if I said I was sorry?”

She blinked, and then her expression softened. “Apologies _always_ help, as long as you mean them.”


	24. Clearing the Air

A tentative truce formed inside Blue Lion. Allura always found it easier to forgive someone than to hold a grudge, and after all, she’d gotten what she wanted. Her freedom and her lion ship were both hers again.

Lotor sulked, but he didn’t direct his anger at her. Instead he spoke quietly about his preparations, about the years of effort that had gone into his planned revolt. Talking about it seemed to calm him. Allura thought that all his work might pay off eventually; the headway he’d made was still bound to destabilize Zarkon’s rule. But she kept that opinion to herself for now.

They’d moved to the tiny passenger compartment beneath the cockpit. She and her teammates mostly used these spaces, located in the chest of each lion, for the storage nooks inside against the smooth, metallic walls, but there was also a chair bolted on one side and a fold-down bunk fixed along the back wall. Allura took the chair while Lotor sat on the bunk and wolfed bites from a ration pack. It reminded her of the cave a little.

He finished his meal and finally broached the subject on both their minds. “What’s going to happen once we reach Arus?”

“I’m not quite sure,” she said, and to tell the truth, that worried her. “My guardians will be upset about the kidnapping but grateful that I’m home. And the boys, well… they’ll be difficult.”

“Because of all those times I tried to shoot them, I suppose,” he said dryly.

Allura suppressed a giggle. “And trap them.”

“And stab them.” He tried and failed to look contrite.

“And imprison them,” she said. “Funny how some people take that sort of thing personally.”

“It must be a flaw in their characters,” he deadpanned. His eyes darkened, turning the color of tarnished gold coins. “And what about you, princess? Do you think you’ll be difficult?”

She opened her mouth to answer. Closed it. Opened it again. “I… um.”

“Am I to be your prisoner this time?” It was a perfectly natural thing for him to be concerned about, but Lotor didn’t _seem_ all that concerned. Suddenly there was silk in his voice. “Or perhaps you could find some better use for me?”

Allura cocked her head, incredulous. “I just upended all your plans, which means Zarkon knows you let me go. But you’re still flirting with me? Even now?”

He pushed up off the bunk. It was only steps away, but somehow he crossed that distance in a slow stalk. “Did you think my regard for you was fragile enough to shatter as soon as it was tested?” Lotor held out his hand and she took it, letting him draw her to her feet. “I knew we had different goals, princess, and my father’s wrath was a risk I chose to take on. I would never expect you to be different than you are.”

The words clashed with everything Allura knew. All the people in her life tried to mold her to fit their ideals. They wanted a more refined lady, a more biddable princess, or a more orderly pilot. She studied hard and trained harder still, but no matter how often she did as she was told, she never felt like she was living up to their expectations. So how could Lotor, a man whose wishes she ignored even after he’d saved her life, brush past her actions so quickly? “I need to go run the diagnostics,” she said, fleeing the compartment.

***

Lotor stretched out on the bunk, thinking that perhaps his situation wasn’t as hopeless as he’d assumed. There was no chance of reconciling with his father even if he wanted to, but becoming an exile would certainly simplify things.

If he couldn’t seize the throne from within Doom’s own ranks, he’d find some other way. And what better place to start than by the side of the woman who controlled the only weapon Zarkon feared? Lotor could help Arus; maybe he could even strengthen it enough to allow Voltron to go on the offensive. Best of all, serving Arus meant serving Allura.

He could still win her. She had as much as told him so. His princess thought that she might have damaged something between them, and more importantly, that upset her. It was enough to give him a slightly less pessimistic view of the day’s events. Lotor turned his mind to defensive strategies for Arus while he willed his body to relax, trying to move past the jangles of tension still thrumming through him from their hasty escape.

After thinking through a dozen battle scenarios, he’d calmed himself enough to achieve a light doze. And eventually, Allura returned.

Her big blue eyes still brimmed with worry, and her mouth pressed into a firm line. It looked as if she’d steeled herself to broach a subject neither of them was going to enjoy. Before she could speak, Lotor rolled to his side and moved back against the wall. He kept his mouth shut for once, letting his gaze and the empty space stand in silent invitation.

Allura’s resolve snapped like a frayed cord, and she claimed the spot. They both relaxed once he drew her into his arms on the thin mattress. Strangely enough, his touch now seemed to reassure her. Yes, he was relying on physicality to distract her from their obstacles, but he wasn’t scrupulous enough to balk at such a tactic. He’d use every weapon he had to keep his princess from talking herself out of wanting him.

He didn’t need her to make any promises she might regret once they landed. For now, it was enough to hold her in that narrow bunk, to know that he could still fight for the future he’d envisioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed to make the update a little early this week because I won't have a lot of free time over the next few days. But since I got a ton of writing done lately I'll be posting a bonus update on Tuesday! (After that we'll resume the weekly Saturday updates until I'm done with the draft.)
> 
> Thanks to everyone who's been commenting and hitting that kudos button. You're all the reason this is going to take a month or two to finish instead of a year or two!


	25. The Lesson

_I have to tell him_. The thought hit Allura again, intruding to the front of her mind as soon as she woke at Lotor’s side. _We can’t go on like this_.

She’d worked it all out in her head yesterday while running the diagnostics, but somehow the words didn’t sound right any more. Her justifications flitted away the instant she saw him. How did you look a man in the eye and tell him that you liked spending time with him, you liked kissing him too, and yet you couldn’t be involved with him in that way?

Nanny and Coran would never permit a courtship. The boys would be against it even more strongly. And there were also the people of Arus to consider; she couldn’t tell them she’d accepted the Prince of Doom as a suitor of her own free will.

The impossibility of all this was obvious, wasn’t it? He couldn’t expect them to go on as they had been, so it’s not as if she needed to make some big announcement. They wouldn’t be sharing quarters in the Castle of Lions, after all, and she’d also be busy organizing the defense of her planet. Maybe it was best to just gradually distance herself. That would be easiest on everyone involved.

Lotor’s lips brushed lightly at the back of her neck, making her wonder if it was fair to put off distancing herself until after they landed.

***

Kissing Allura was officially his favorite way to begin a day.

She had turned to face him, all but trapping him against the wall in Blue Lion’s small passenger compartment. Lotor couldn’t assert himself the way he might have done under other circumstances; there wasn’t space to roll over and pin her in the single-person bunk. He lay still instead, letting his princess set the pace of the kiss for once. But perhaps he could… hm. He reached down and hooked Allura’s knee, drawing it over his waist. The move canted her hips towards him, bringing them closer together. Then he rested his hand on the curve of her ass, swallowing the squeal she made as he squeezed.

Her tongue pressed between his lips, and Lotor’s eyes fell shut. He wanted more of this. More of her eager mouth and her soft, sweet skin and those hitched little breaths she was making. He wanted to bear her down beneath him and give and take and take and take. _Gods_.

He lifted her instead, sliding over on his back and easing her atop him. Easier to remember himself this way. Now Allura straddled him, her thighs stretched across his hips, her knee almost off the edge of the bunk. Lotor held himself still. Her kisses were gentler now, less insistent even as she rocked against him. He let out a muffled groan, balling his hands to fists as he savored the sweet torture.

Lotor hoped she might bring up that quiet question again, the one he’d never have the willpower to refuse a second time. Unfortunately the lack of a decent bed would limit him somewhat. He was considering more practical alternatives when she finally pulled back.

That pensive look had returned to her eyes. _Damn, she’s overthinking things again_. He was tempted to draw her back down, to ease her fears the best way he knew how, but if he had somehow unsettled her, that could backfire. He’d have to try a different approach, one he wasn’t accustomed to. “What’s wrong, sweetling?” he asked.

“They’re all going to hate that I’m bringing you home with me,” she said with a sigh.

He failed to see the difficulty. “It’s for you to decide who is welcome at your court.”

“That’s true.” The words carried little conviction. She was obviously distressed, but he didn’t understand why. 

Allura was the princess. Soon she would rule. If she wanted him at her side, or even in her bed, that was her prerogative. He could to nothing to reassure her until he saw how things stood at the Castle of Lions though, so perhaps a distraction was called for. Lotor brushed his fingers down her arm in a gesture that was more affectionate than sexual. “Now that we’re awake and have some time on our hands, will you do something for me?”

She tilted her head, still seeming a little wary. “What?”

“I’ve never spent time in one of these lions. I was wondering if you could show me how it works.”

Her expression eased as she gave him a nod, and then they disentangled themselves.

As it turned out, she could do better than show him an overview of the control panel. The lion ship had a training mode that essentially turned the cockpit into a simulator, all without overriding their set flight plan. Allura fired up a testing scenario.

The pride she took in Blue Lion threaded heavily through her voice as she put the training program through its paces, and after a lengthy demonstration, she turned the pilot’s chair over. The display showed what was presumably some remote spot on Arus, a range of jagged mountains. It took Lotor roughly thirty seconds before he smashed the lion into one of them. He cursed and restarted the simulation. The second time, he lasted a minute and a half.

“This is trickier than flying the actual lion since you can’t feel the ship react,” Allura said from behind him. “But it’s a good way to practice the control configurations.”

He fought down the urge to snarl. The lion was much bigger than the fighters he was used to, and its irregular shape was awkward. It was oddly maneuverable though, so he kept turning harder than he expected. He kept at it, taking in new information with each fresh failure, until he could cruise through the sim while only clipping a paw or two against the rock.

_They haven’t made a ship yet that I can’t master_ , he thought, turning to the princess with a triumphant air. 

She had an odd little smile on her face. “That was with the lion set on half its normal speed. Ready to try it at full throttle?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's that Tuesday update, but we'll be going back to our regular Friday or Saturday schedule until the draft is complete.


	26. Flight and Fight

Allura set him challenge after challenge, sometimes siding back behind the controls herself to demonstrate Blue Lion’s unique capabilities. It was strange to teach someone else how to fly her ship, especially since she was the least experienced member of the Voltron force. 

Training was usually Keith’s role. Of course Keith would never let the Prince of Doom into the cockpit of a lion, and he’d probably be angry with Allura for allowing it. She wasn’t nervous at all about showing Lotor how to pilot her ship, though. Her friends might find her reasoning hard to accept, but she’d come to trust him. And she was determined to let him stay at the castle as long as he wanted to.

Those worries rushed from her mind as an alert flashed over the training screen. They were nearing Arus. She was finally home. _I sure hope I’m ready for this_. She and Lotor switched seats, and Allura worked down her mental checklist for finishing a long-range trip. The routine helped to settle her nerves. Blue Lion was green across the board, in perfect shape even after its recent ordeal.

The orbital space around Arus bristled with massive enemy ships. Laser fire cracked past Blue Lion’s hull; the blockade was clearly prepared for their arrival. Did any of the Doom soldiers firing those guns know that Lotor was in the lion ship with her? Even if they knew, would they care?

She sent the lion into an evasive spin. The lasers couldn’t hurt them much, but there was no sense in draining her shields if that could be avoided. The biggest danger now was… there. Allura jerked the control sticks to one side as a set of missiles exploded off her right flank. That had been close!

Allura dove for the surface, scattering the fighters below. If she collided with too many of the smaller ships she’d be in trouble, but she had to get out of range of those missile cannons. She gritted her teeth as she weaved among the swarm of fighters, clearing a path with a few blasts from Blue Lion’s guns. They made it through with only some minor bumps.

Lotor let out a triumphant laugh from the jump seat. “Well done!”

An answering smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but they weren’t out of this fight yet. A few of the fighters screamed after the Blue Lion. They lost speed as they breached the atmosphere, which made them slow to respond as Allura spun the lion and opened fire. A line of neatly placed shots scored each pursuer. The damage was slight at this distance, but she’d scorched them badly enough to send the entire wing racing back to their hangars for repair.

Once the coast was clear she brought up her comm channel, trying to decide between raising the castle now or surprising her friends with a flyover. What she heard next instantly dampened her mood. “We might not be able to take this thing down,” Keith’s voice echoed, grim and determined, through her cockpit speakers. “But at least we got it away from any populated areas.”

Allura gasped, and with a few taps she pulled the scanner up on her viewscreen. _There_. The four other lions were out in Murkdeep Canyon, surrounding some large shape with the most unusual energy signature she’d ever seen. It could only be a robeast.

“Haggar’s newest creation,” Lotor said, confirming her fear. “It’s strong.”

She nodded and pointed Blue Lion’s nose towards the canyon. They were going to need Voltron.

The signals from the other lions pinged around on her scanner, dipping and dodging as they faced down the creature. She winced as Yellow Lion took a direct hit. “I’m okay,” Hunk’s voice cut in. “But my gyros took a beating. Switching to secondary stabilizers.”

Allura fought off the urge to announce herself, unwilling to distract her team until she was there to back them up. Her lion hit its top in-atmosphere speed, but the minutes crawled by. She followed the fight as best she could over the scanner and the comms.

Keith and Lance took the high ground with Black and Red, firing at the robeast from the edges of the canyon. This put them in right in line with the monster’s swipes, so they darted in and out of its range while the other two lions kept low. Pidge’s Green rushed in to snap at the robeast’s legs, and Hunk covered everyone with powerful shots from Yellow’s tail cannon.

They were doing well, but the lions likely hadn’t spent enough time in their dens since the start of the blockade. Their energy levels looked unsteady. At this rate the robeast, fresh from its coffin ship, had a definite advantage. Things looked bleak for Arus, but her planet wouldn’t fall today. Not if Allura had anything to say about it.

She got her first real glimpse of the robeast as she approached the canyon rim. It was massive, with big mallet-shaped hands and a bony ridge that trailed down its back. Curved fangs distorted its mouth. With the target in sight, Allura keyed her mic. “Looks like you boys could use a hand.” She launched a burst of missiles from Blue Lion’s shoulder, and they exploded solidly against the robeast’s chest. The creature staggered backwards.

Her comm channel exploded. “Allura?!” … “All right!” … “I _knew_ it!” … “Now we’re talkin’!”

“Good to have you back, Princess,” Keith said, cutting through the chatter. 

“Thanks, everyone,” she said, grinning. “Are you ready to form Voltron?”


	27. Megathrusters Are Go

The lions raced upwards, coming together in a tight formation. Lotor leaned forward against the straps that buckled him against the jump seat. This, he had to see.

“Activate interlock!” At Keith’s order, Allura twisted her control sticks, and the entire instrument panel began to change. Blue Lion’s key shifted in its slot. “Dynotherms connected! Infracells up!” A star-shaped panel slid open and then the console rotated, revealing a new set of screens and buttons. “Megathrusters are go!”

“Let’s go, Voltron Force!” Allura’s voice blended with the rest of the team.

“Form feet and legs!” Keith shouted. The princess checked over a set of readings, and then tapped at the altered console before her commander issued another command. “Form arms and body! And I’ll form the head!”

Blue Lion’s limbs pulled against its torso as the whole ship twisted into place. Lotor’s skin prickled from the aura of magic that surrounded them, reminding him that the lions were more than just a marvel of engineering. Voltron was as mystical as it was mechanical, and not even his father’s witch, Haggar, had been able to counter its power.

As each lion folded and locked itself in place, their roars thundered through the canyon. It felt strange to look on that as a promising step in the battle. This was usually the point where Lotor cursed or made futile threats, but today he was depending on Voltron to shield him from the might of Doom.

Allura’s display panels flicked to a set of weapon readouts, so presumably Keith, as Black Lion’s pilot, directed the robot’s movement. It was certainly more practical than having individual controls for the arms and legs. Lotor wondered if all the smaller lions controlled weapons systems or if some of them had a more defensive focus, but this didn’t seem like the best time to ask. 

The robeast sent a breath of hot plasma searing out towards this new opponent. Voltron’s shields absorbed the blast, protecting its plating from the flames, but Pidge’s voice came wailing through the speaker. “Shields at seventy-five percent. We can’t take too many of those hits!”

“Time to get in close, then,” Keith said. The man sounded frustratingly calm. “Princess, how about a little breathing room?”

“I’ve got it,” Allura answered. She pressed two buttons in a staccato sequence, and the jaws of Blue Lion, now part of the larger robot’s foot, parted. A spray of high-velocity water jetted at the robeast’s head, blinding it while Voltron flew back down into the canyon. They squared off against the beast as they landed.

Two missile batteries popped out of Voltron’s shoulders and fired off their rounds. All the projectiles thudded into their target, but when the smoke cleared, the robeast still looked undamaged. “Uh-oh,” said the Red pilot, Lance. “You guys, I think we might be in trouble.”

The robeast charged. Voltron started to shift aside, but the beast corrected course, lowering its head. The impact jolted Lotor hard against his harness as they slammed into the canyon wall. Then the beast grappled at them with one arm and used the other to punch Voltron’s side.

“Shields down to fifty percent; no, forty-five,” Pidge reported. The shields bled off most of the force from the robeast’s blows, but direct contact would drain them fast.

Lotor heard a zap just as Keith spoke again. “Hold tight, I’m electrifying Voltron’s outer plating. This monster won’t be able to hold us for long.” The electricity popped and sizzled, but the beast only hit them again.

“Thirty-two,” said Pidge. And on top of their rapidly declining shields, Allura’s power readings dipped dangerously low.

“It’s not working!” The gruff-voiced Yellow pilot, Hunk, said what they were all thinking.

“Cutting the power,” Keith said coolly, shutting down the electrical field. _Damn the man, what will it take to rile him?_ Then the beast hit Voltron again.

Haggar’s robeast was certainly living up to expectations, but it seemed like an incredible coincidence that, after so many delays, she finally had it ready just after Blue Lion’s escape. _Unless it wasn’t ready at all_ , Lotor thought. _Perhaps Zarkon launched it early, hoping that even a flawed robeast could defeat the other lions before we joined them_.

He set a hand on Allura’s shoulder. “Have them burn it.”

“What?” The princess flicked her gaze back over her shoulder.

“Haggar had trouble with its fire resistance. That robeast can withstand a quick burst, like an exploding missile, but steady exposure to flames will hurt it.” He was suddenly grateful for the old witch’s insistence on keeping him informed of her progress.

Allura wasted no time. “Okay team, we need to set it on fire.”

“What makes you think that would help?” Keith asked, as if they had time for discussion. Lotor gritted his teeth.

“Well the princess was just with the drule,” Lance said. “So maybe she heard something. I’ll turn up the heat.“ Flame spouted from Red Lion’s jaws. For the first few seconds there was no reaction, but then the robeast squealed in agony. Voltron’s yellow arm reached for the beast when it tried to withdraw, keeping the combatants locked together.

“Hey, that’s working! Keep it up, gang,” Pidge said with a whoop. The thick skin of the robeast began to char, and it flailed against Voltron’s hold. The beast kicked and struggled until it finally, and quite suddenly, it wrenched itself free.

It stepped away, already regrouping for another attack as Keith shouted. “Form Blazing Sword!”

Voltron’s hands clanged together. As they parted, a ray of shining energy coalesced into a hardened blade of magic and steel. The sword came around in one fast stroke, leaving behind a glowing line that bisected the robeast’s gruesome body. The beast slid into pieces.

Just then, Lotor remembered another one of Haggar’s plans for this robeast. There was no time to argue or relay messages. He clicked the comm button by his jump seat. “Get away from the body. Do it now!”

“Prince Lotor!” Four voices screeched in outraged unison, but Voltron didn’t move. Lotor had just enough time to say a few choice words to the sluggish pilots before his world exploded.


	28. An Awkward Reunion

“Leave me alone, Nanny. I’m trying to sleep,” Allura said, swatting at the hands that jostled her. She had a crink in her neck, and her bed was spinning this morning.

“Allura, wake up.” Nanny sounded worried. Her voice had gone funny too; it was deeper, almost raspy. Kind of like…

Her eyes flew open. “Lotor!”

The prince’s face was pale, and he let out a sigh of relief when she spoke. Flashes of recent memory strobed through her mind. Voltron slashing the robeast. Lotor’s warning. A loud bang and a sudden wave of pressure as Keith shouted an order. “Where are we?” she asked.

“I’m not certain. Voltron broke apart, and Blue Lion piloted itself to the bottom of a lake.”

“Oh good,” she said, continuing only once she saw his confusion. “When Voltron takes too much damage, there’s an emergency release that kicks in to bring the lions back to their dens. We won’t be able to use them for a couple of days, but after that they’ll be as good as new.”

“The fleet won’t be quick to attack again now that you’ve destroyed their robeast,” he said. “So you should have the time you need. More importantly, how are you feeling?”

She shrugged, firmly ignoring the vertigo that the motion set off in her head. “I’m a little shaken up, but I’ll be fine.” Allura flicked a switch on the console, and the cockpit backed out into the transparent tunnel that would take them to the castle. Water surrounded them, disturbed slightly by the air bubbles that vented against the reinforced glass as they whizzed by. She closed her eyes at the sight, still feeling a little dizzy. Before long the cockpit stopped. The overhead hatch unsealed, and after grabbing her lion key, Allura steadied herself and climbed to the platform above. 

Lotor followed, clearly trying to take all this in. Was he nervous? Allura knew better than to ask. It was best to get this over with, but still she hesitated. When they went up to the castle, everything was going to change. Again. She looked up into his cat-slit pupils and wondered, just for a moment, what it might have been like if Zarkon had given them permission to marry. But really, there was no sense thinking about that now.

Allura pointed to the zipline. “I’ll go first, and when I reach the top, I’ll send the handle back down. Just grab it, yank down, and hang on tight.” Before he could say anything, she demonstrated. The handle reeled in, drawing her speedily up to a life that no longer felt quite the way it used to.

Once she hit topside, she hopped lightly out of the tube. She wavered on the landing, still feeling lightheaded, but then a pair of meaty arms gathered her into a bear hug.

“Sheesh, Hunk. Let her breathe,” said Lance. He looked as unruffled as ever, with his shoulders sloped as he buried his hands in the pockets of his bomber jacket. But his voice broke slightly when he continued. “Welcome home, Princess.”

Hunk let her go, and his cheeks turned as red as apples. “Um, hi,” he said.

She laughed. “Thank you. It’s so good to see you both!”

Fast footsteps slapped against the floor as Pidge rounded the corner at full speed and then skidded to a halt. His mouth spread in a massive grin, but then he burst into tears.

Allura rushed to his side. “Oh Pidge! What’s wrong?”

“I left you there! I left you to be captured and it’s all my fault!”

“Oh no, that’s not true at all,” she said softly, trying to calm him. “Nobody blames you.”

Hunk patted Pidge firmly on the back. “We’ve been trying to tell the little guy that all week.”

“And I’m here now. I’m okay,” she said. Pidge’s bawling settled into sniffles. Then someone behind them cleared his throat, and she turned.

Keith smiled at her, warmth shining from his big, brown eyes. “Hello, Allura.” He stood, staring, until it looked like he was about to say something else.

“Princess Allura!” Nanny barreled into the group, and as it always did, the situation reordered itself around her. She grabbed Allura’s hands in hers and stretched them wide, as if reassuring herself that her charge was in one piece. “My poor sweet girl, home at last. How can you keep risking yourself, Princess? You can’t imagine what I’ve been through imagining you in the clutches of such a _monster_. Thank goodness you’re finally away from that Lotor.”

“Oh!” Allura slipped from Nanny’s grasp and hit the release for the zipline, sending it whizzing back down the drop tube. “I almost forgot. Now everyone, I need you to be calm while we explain things.”

Five faces looked at her with varying degrees of understanding. “So _that’s_ how he got into our comms at the end,” Lance said, pulling his hands from his pockets. “Princess, how could you?”

“It’s a long story, and he’s here as a friend. Please just keep an open mind,” Allura said, trying to come up with some way to make this not a disaster. She watched helplessly as the line started to ascend again. Nanny wore an expression of polite confusion, but Allura knew she’d explode once she learned what they were talking about. Lance and Hunk seemed faintly mutinous, while Pidge was readying himself for another round of self-recrimination. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Keith at all.

There was a final whir, and the doors of the tube slid open to reveal Prince Lotor. He’d betrayed his father, fled his homeworld, and ridden along inside Voltron, but somehow he looked as fresh as ever as he stepped into the castle with an insolent smile on his face. _I should have warned them_ , she thought. _But how do you prepare anyone for this?_

Lotor stood there, seeming bemused by all this attention until Keith closed the distance between them and punched him square in the jaw. His head rocked back and to the side, and a trickle of blood seeped from his mouth. “Fair enough,” Lotor said, shrugging off the blow. “I deserve that for taking her to Doom. But it’s the only free shot you get.”

“Why you…” Keith trailed off in favor of swinging at Lotor again. The prince dodged this time, dropping back with an exaggerated sigh that only made Keith angrier. Lance moved in, though Allura couldn’t tell if he was trying to get between them or join the fight himself.

“No!” she shouted. “Stop, please!”

Nanny screeched for the guards while Pidge and Hunk looked torn between supporting their commander and obeying the princess. Lotor continued to evade Keith, blocking the other man’s attacks.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Allura rushed in, grabbing at Keith’s arm. “Stop it. You don’t understand!”

Keith shook her off. He’d been gentle about it, but the motion brought her vertigo rushing back. She tried to catch her balance and failed, and as her whole world faded into darkness, she heard Lotor yelling out her name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that these crazy kids have made it to Arus, they'll have a whole different set of challenges to take on. Tossing in so many more characters has felt tricky at times, but it also has its upsides. For example, part of next week's chapter will be in an entirely new POV!


	29. Jailbreak

He’d seen worse dungeons.

Lotor’s usual experience of these things was as a jailer rather than a prisoner, but this being Arus, the conditions weren’t all that bad. The holding cell was spacious and well-lit, and a nervous pair of guards brought him regular meals. They made a production of delivering his food. One guard always slipped a tray through the slot in the door while the other covered him with a stunner. It was tempting to play the fiend they expected, to reinforce his savage reputation. _Allura wouldn’t like it_ , he reminded himself.

It had been three days since he’d seen her, judging by the number of trays he’d received and how many times the room dimmed to night-cycle lighting. According to her adviser, Coran, she was in the hospital wing, concussed but out of danger. Kept to bed rest largely as a precaution. Coran was the only one who’d tell him anything, and Lotor assumed the man doled out bits of information largely to keep his prisoner from planning an escape attempt. Not that Lotor hadn’t figured out at least seven ways to get out of the cell if it were necessary. His favorite involved overpowering Keith, who’d been his only other visitor.

Keith arrived twice a day to ask him variations on the same question: “What did you do to Allura?” Had he drugged her? Hypnotized her? Cast some kind of spell? Coran wanted to hear more details about what passed on Doom, but he also insisted on believing that Lotor had used some trick to manipulate the princess. Neither man could credit the idea that Allura had come to trust him.

He answered every question Coran put to him. He told Allura’s adviser about the audience with Zarkon, the Bone Pit, and their escape from Doom, and then he went further still. Lotor gave details on the blockade fleet, even sharing estimates on how long it might take Haggar to ready another robeast. He had no second thoughts about giving up his people’s secrets. If he was going to be a traitor, he’d be a successful one.

Lotor didn’t speak during Keith’s interrogations. He hadn’t used tech or magic to affect Allura’s mind, so he refused to waste his breath with repeated denials. And as much as he wanted to hint that perhaps his fervent kisses had won the princess over, Lotor knew that would lead to a whole new set of loathsome accusations. It was better to annoy the Voltron Force commander with his silence.

As the lights flicked down to their night setting, Lotor paced the small cell. He’d been determined to do things Allura’s way, but that was growing tiresome. Each time he asked to see her, Coran claimed she was resting or undergoing more tests. They were obviously keeping something from him. _Maybe they’re keeping my captivity a secret from the princess_. She’d been unconscious for a time, so they could easily have fed her some lie. What if she thought he’d abandoned her? It was time to take action.

The guards had seized his sword and his datapad; thankfully Lotor didn’t need either one to be dangerous. He’d concealed a butter knife from his first dinner tray, partly out of sheer surprise that they’d given him one in the first place. Apparently Arusians were not used to keeping prisoners. He could use the knife to gain an advantage over Keith or Coran, but it would be better to keep his flight a secret for as long as possible. So instead he set to work prying at one of the wall panels.

After twenty minutes of solid effort, he’d managed to budge it. Then Lotor heard the squeaking.

***

“Look! Hey, biggun, look now,” Cheddar chirped. No reaction. Why ‘Lura wanted this stupid-bad biggun, Cheddar couldn’t guess. ‘Lura was strange. He tried again, waving his paws. “Over-down here. Look!”

The biggun finally turned. He spotted Cheddar behind him. On the floor. His eyes got big.

“Yes, now. You come!” Cheddar’s squeaks were louder now.

The stupid-bad tilted his head, and Cheddar scowled. Bigguns made everything hard.

Cheddar launched into the You-Come-Go dance, the one even most bigguns finally got. Maybe he should have brought Cheezy. Cheezy did the talking dances better. Cheezy also tattled to friend-Pidge though, and friend-Pidge might not like this. But even if Cheddar _was_ doing bad, he was too worried about ‘Lura to care.

She’d been gone, and the whole castle was sad. No one laughed at the dances. They were sad about ‘Lura, but not even friend-Pidge would tell the space mice why. And now she was home but still mostly gone, sleeping all day no matter how loud he squeaked at her.

Her bigguns brushed him away from her bedcovers. “Not now, Cheddar.” “Go away, Cheddar. This is serious.” He knew it was serious. He _did_. Which was why he had to help.

The few times she woke, ‘Lura asked for this biggun. Nobody brought him. Yes, he was stupid-bad, but if she wanted him so much, Cheddar would fetch him for her.

The biggun wrinkled his nose. “I’m guessing you want me to follow you, though I’m not sure how I’m supposed to manage that from in here.”

Cheddar made him a bow and then scrambled up to the food-hole in the door. He went through, found the buttons. Click click click. The door slid open. This biggun might be stupid but he was _fast_. Out the door and down the hall. Cheddar scampered ahead, doing the No-Wait dance as best he could while moving.

“Eh?” The biggun stopped and looked down, finally paying attention. 

Maybe he wasn’t so stupid after all. Cheddar mimed a few sneaking steps and pointed at the open door at the end of the hall. Then he set off, hoping the biggun didn’t mess this up.

The room at the end of the hall had more castle-ones than usual, so Cheddar squeaked loudly as he hopped up onto the table. One of the castle-ones yelled. Yells often led to throwing things, but this time he got lucky. “That’s one of Princess Allura’s space mice,” somebody said. The castle-ones gathered around.

Cheddar started a vigorous just-for-fun dance, kicking and hopping across the table while the castle-ones watched. He was a very good dancer, so the crowd didn’t look away when his stupid-bad biggun slipped by. Cheddar finished his dance and then raced for the exit. From here it would be easy to get the biggun back to ‘Lura.


	30. Betrayal

Allura slowly became aware of small, familiar weight on her chest. She opened her eyes, and there was Cheddar, her oldest friend, hunched on all fours just over her heart. The space mouse squeaked and looked across the room with an expression she might almost describe as smug.

When she followed his gaze, she saw Lotor rising from one of those uncomfortably practical chairs they kept in the… wait. Why was she still in the medical ward? They’d brought her here after she fainted, running tests while she told Coran and Keith about her captivity and escape from Doom. Keith said that Lotor was keeping to his quarters until she recovered. That made sense to her; it was going to take time for the guards and staff to be comfortable with the prince even once Allura was up to making a public show of her support. Still, it stung each time she woke to find he hadn’t yet visited.

“You’re actually here,” she said. Her voice scratched over the words, and she realized her throat was dry.

“I had little wish to damage your jailers, Allura,” he said. His whole posture was stiff. “But I won’t let them cage me again.”

It took a moment for her sleep-hazed mind to make sense of the words, but then comprehension bloomed into disbelief. “They put you in the holding cells?”

Lotor nodded. “I was trying to decide on the least disruptive way to get out when your little rodent unlocked my door. However did you train it?”

A storm of chirrups flooded the room as Cheddar both basked in the credit and objected to the idea of being trained.

“His name is Cheddar,” Allura said warmly. “Space mice are bright and loyal, so he must have brought you because he thought it might help.” She returned her attention to the preening mouse. “Thank you, Cheddar. You were very brave.”

The prince looked dubious, but his manners were as fine as anyone’s once he decided to actually use them. “Cheddar, then. My thanks.” He inclined his head.

Cheddar squeaked, then flushed, and then he squeaked again. He scampered off the bed, probably back to the mouse warren to share his heroism with the rest of his family.

Allura shook the remaining fog from her head. “I told Coran you were here as my guest. I can’t believe they took you into custody.”

“There’s more,” Lotor replied. He nearly spat the words. “Keith thinks I tampered with your mind in some way, that I would _hurt_ you just to get into the castle. They’ve been keeping you sedated while they figure out how I did it.”

Gooseflesh crept over her neck. “No, that can’t be. Coran and Nanny would never allow it.”

He gestured at the medical log on the monitor near her bedside, and it didn’t take long to skim through the notes. Minor concussion. All test results within expected levels. Brain function normal. Add fluids and nutrition drip. Full sedation (pending investigation) by order of the Captain of the Voltron Force. There was also a small bandage on her inner arm, near her elbow. It was lopsided, as if someone had hastily slapped it on after removing an intravenous line. Allura buried her face in her hands. 

 _How could they?_ She trusted these people. Fought hard to come back to them. But somehow she had been safer with an enemy than among her own friends. Lotor put a steadying hand on her shoulder, and she squelched the tears welling up in her eyes. There was no time for crying now.

Allura sat up and pushed back the coverlet, swinging her bare legs off the end of the bed. She felt too numb to be self-conscious about the thin medical gown. As she scooted off the bed her knees nearly gave way, but Lotor caught her, holding her upright.

“Easy,” he said. “You’ve been out for days.”

He took her arm as she made slow circles around the room, trying to work some strength back into her limbs. She was hardly leaning on Lotor at all by the time Keith burst through the door.

***

“Get away from her!” Keith shouted from the doorway.

Lotor had never heard an order he was less likely to obey, and he sneered at Allura’s would-be savior before replying. “Perhaps I’d consider it if she could stand upright on her own.”

Keith drew his pistol. “I’m warning you.” The self-righteous tone left Lotor gritting his teeth.

 _An empty threat_ , Lotor thought. Keith wouldn’t fire anywhere near the princess. “You still claim to be her protector? After what you’ve done?” It was too much. There was a chair nearby; perhaps Allura could support herself on that while Lotor pummeled her captain.

“Stop it,” Allura said. Her voice was firm but quiet. “Both of you, just stop.”

Lotor sighed. Of course she wasn’t going to let them fight and get it over with. 

And predictably, Keith wasn’t about to let the issue go. “He’s dangerous, Princess.”

“Maybe,” she said sadly. “But Lotor isn’t the one who drugged me.”

Keith’s face reddened, but he holstered the pistol. “That was for your own good.”

“I’m sure you think it was,” she said. “That doesn’t make it right, though. You know me, Keith. Is it really so difficult to believe I’d offer him asylum after he saved my life?”

“I… it was too risky.” Keith ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair.

Allura frowned. “And keeping me unconscious wasn’t a risk? What if the fleet had attacked again?”

The answer came swift and smooth, a justification he’d likely practiced several times in the last few days. “All our lions needed recovery time, and Doom won’t bother to launch a full assault now that they think _he’s_ wormed his way into the palace.”

That reasoning made little sense, but Allura questioned it before Lotor could. “But they did attack,” she said. “If the fleet expected Lotor to hand over the castle, why bother to send that robeast?”

Lotor didn’t particularly care whether they convinced Keith of anything, but he seized on the opportunity to join the argument. “After we escaped, Zarkon must have hoped to take down another of the lions,” he said. “My father’s been meddling with my orders to the fleet for more than a week now, and his new plans may rely on keeping Voltron out of action.”

Keith shook his head, as if denying the facts might change them. “I still don’t know how you managed to convince the princess you deserve to be here,” he told Lotor. “But I won’t let you get away with this.”

That dramatic pronouncement hung in the air until Allura’s advisor, Coran, walked swiftly into the room. His lined face was grim as he took them all in. “Princess Allura, I see I was too late to wake you myself, but I owe you an apology. I’m afraid we’ve made a terrible mistake.”


	31. Sorting it Out

Allura stepped forward, still keeping a grip on Lotor’s arm as she cooly faced the man who’d helped raise her. Keith began to say something, but the princess cut him off. It was time for them all to talk to her rather than about her. “What is it, Coran?”

“When you first arrived, I agreed with Keith that this must be another of Doom’s tricks,” he said. His voice was heavy with regret. “But I’ve just received a piece of news that changed my mind: King Zarkon has formally disowned Lotor. Legally speaking, he is no longer a prince, Zarkon’s son, or even a citizen of Doom.”

Lotor’s arm went stiff beneath her hand. “Are you certain?”

“I am,” Coran answered. The gravity of what Lotor had done hit Allura once again. He’d lost his position and his home, but he’d already made it clear he didn’t to hold that against her. And when his help had mattered most, even with his whole future hanging above his head, he hadn’t hesitated.

“Well, I don’t believe it,” Keith said. “This could be all part of the plan.”

Coran’s tone sharpened. “Zarkon has published a set of formal writs. Even if he were to try to amend them later on, those documents would forever be seen as a stain on Lotor’s legitimacy as the heir to the empire. No ruler would take that sort of public action as a ploy.”

Keith huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Now he was just being stubborn. Allura had seen him make mistakes in the past, and he’d always owned up to them. Was he digging in his heels because Lotor was involved?

She tried to put herself in Keith’s position. If one of her teammates had shown up with a similar tale a few weeks back, Allura herself would have been skeptical. _I wouldn’t have had them drugged though_. She’d come to trust Lotor because, no matter what his faults, he’d helped her when it counted. Keith hadn’t been there; he couldn’t know.

She had a great deal to say to Keith and Coran, and eventually she would need to speak with Lotor about his father’s plans. Those conversations were best held separately though. “Can you help me sit down?” she asked Lotor. “And then would you please wait in the hall?”

***

Lotor propped his back against the wall just outside Allura’s sickroom. Snippets of conversation drifted out through the closed door, but he stopped listening after it became clear she was giving the other two a well-deserved dressing down.

_Good_ , he thought. _She ought not let such a challenge to her authority go unpunished_. Of course Allura’s idea of disciplining a subordinate probably involved stern glances and disappointed shakes of her dainty head. His lips quirked into a smile. Her kindhearted nature might keep her from judging Keith and Coran too harshly, but that didn’t mean she’d simply forget their offense. As they were no doubt learning, Allura was more than capable of asserting herself when the situation called for it. She’d stood in front of his father without quaking, after all.

His father. Could he even call Zarkon that anymore? _Damn the man, always complicating things_. Even if he gathered the necessary military support, the nobles would be even more reluctant to follow him now. But it wasn’t as if Zarkon’s decree changed who Lotor _was_. He was still of the king’s bloodline, acknowledged or no, and more importantly, he’d still been trained by that wily old bastard. So let Zarkon take his petty revenge. Lotor knew his own worth, and the rest of the galaxy would learn it soon enough.

Even through his musings, he heard the soft scuff of booted feet just as the Red Lion pilot, Lance, turned the corner. The newcomer froze, then reached for his weapon.

“I wouldn’t,” Lotor drawled. “Not unless you want the princess to drag you in there and scowl at you alongside your captain and the old man.”

Lance paused, his hand near the butt of his pistol but not quite touching it. “She’s awake?”

“No thanks to you lot, yes.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance tilted his head.

_Well that’s interesting_. “They’ve been keeping her sedated while they tried to prove I brought her back as some kind of trick. Keith didn’t tell you, did he?” It seemed it was Lotor’s day for shattering illusions.

Lance’s eyes widened. “No. I had no idea, and I’m pretty sure Hunk and Pidge didn’t know either.” There was no automatic denial, no protest that the Voltron Force leader was incapable of such an act. 

Hm. Maybe Lotor would end up hating this one less than the others. “If that’s true, make sure she learns of it,” he said. The princess deserved to know that at least some of her friends weren’t in on the plot.

“So you’re on our side now? Just like that?” Lance sounded skeptical.

Lotor gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “I’m on _her_ side. Everyone in this castle would do well to remember that.”

Their conversation was cut off when Keith yanked open the door and stormed into the hall. He fixed Lotor with a cold-eyed stare. “I still don’t trust you.”

“ _You_ probably shouldn’t,” Lotor replied, using his most agreeable tone.

“That’s enough.” Allura’s voice was firm. She rested a hand lightly on Coran’s arm as they followed Keith from the room. “I don’t expect the two of you to like each other, but you _will_ learn to be in the same room without squabbling.”

Keith nodded sharply, then turned on his heel and walked away. Lotor couldn’t resist a smirk. He’d play nicely with the good captain, if only because that would infuriate the man more than open hostility would. Keith had been right about one thing, though; Lotor _was_ dangerous. He’d prove that to Zarkon soon enough — and to anyone else who got in his way.


	32. Late Night Visit

An hour and a half later, Allura sat at her vanity and combed out her hair. It was still slightly damp after her long soak in the tub, and she enjoyed the familiar ritual of tending it. Fresh air wafted in from the open balcony doors, a welcome change after so many days in either space or Doom’s acrid atmosphere. Her gold-toned curtains billowed slightly in the breeze.

Coran had promised to see Lotor settled in a proper guest room this time, and thankfully the two of them were gone before Nanny thundered into the medical ward to take charge of things. Allura let herself be swept along with the tide, deciding not to ask if Nanny knew about the sedatives. She’d had enough tense conversations for one day.

The hour was late, but after days of rest Allura was hardly eager to lie back down. Perhaps she’d spend the night catching up on those intelligence reports about the blockade. Instead of heading to her desk though, she rose and began to pace wide circles.

“Feeling restless, Princess?”

Allura whirled, and there he was, framed in the balcony doorway. She rushed to him, clenching her hands to keep herself from reaching out “Lotor! What are you doing here?”

“My guest chamber is nearly as dull as the holding cell. Coran asked me not to wander the corridors alone until he’d had a chance to explain my freedom to the guards, so since the door was out I thought I’d try my luck with the window.”

“You climbed up from the guest wing? That was a dangerous thing to do.”

He took a step forward, moving close enough that she had to tilt her head upward to meet his eyes. “Seeing you is well worth the risk.”

Lotor didn’t take her into his arms. He didn’t even touch her, but the tempting purr in his voice smoothed over her skin like a caress. They were alone, in her bedroom, with Allura dressed only in her nightgown. It was all terribly inappropriate, especially since she’d already decided she had to give him up. He shouldn’t be here, but just the sight of him loosed that gnawing knot in her stomach. So even though every rational thought in her head was screaming to send Lotor away, she pushed up on her toes and kissed him.

His tongue slipped into her mouth as he drew her into a heated embrace, and she melted into his arms. Allura’s whole body flushed with warmth. The kiss felt unbelievably good, and more than that, it felt _right_. Why was she so determined to put an end to this? Yes, there were practicalities to consider. She also knew it couldn’t last. But didn’t she deserve a few stolen moments of happiness? Doom could win the war tomorrow, so maybe it was okay to enjoy tonight.

***

His princess clutched tight at his shoulders, moaning as she pressed her body closer. Her eagerness inflamed him, but Lotor took her mouth with an unhurried passion. It wouldn’t do to rush their pleasure. They had time and space and privacy now, so he would take full advantage of all three.

He hadn’t come to her chamber with seduction in mind. He’d simply wanted to see her, to satisfy himself that her supposed friends weren’t launching some fresh betrayal. The idea that they would drug her, that they would _dare_ , still enraged him, but at least now he knew to watch her allies as closely as her enemies. That was what he’d climbed up here to say. Of course if Allura preferred a more tactile form of comfort, he was happy to be of service.

She tugged them towards the bed and Lotor obliged her, easing her down on the lace-edged coverlet. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside before following. She trailed a hand across his back as he resumed the kiss, and her nails scraped lightly over his flesh.

Lotor bunched the thin material of her nightdress in his fist, half-forgetting his resolve to take things slow. But spending the night in Allura’s bed was about more than physical gratification. He wanted her more than ever, especially now that she was doing that thing with her tongue. Indulging a few more of his fantasies wouldn’t be enough for him, though. He needed to treat her with the care she deserved.

He slid her nightdress off one pale, perfect shoulder, intending to pay homage to that sensitive swath of skin at the base of her neck. Then he heard a door slide open.

“Hullo? Princess?” Nanny’s bombastic voice drifted in through the open doorway that connected the rooms of Allura’s suite. The outer door didn’t have a view into the bedchamber, but the meddlesome woman was only steps away. Any moment now there was bound to be screaming and fainting and any manner of things sure to thwart Lotor’s newly formed plans for the evening.

From beneath him, the princess shoved. Some combination of her panicked strength and Lotor’s shock sent him tumbling away. He landed in a heap on the far side of the bed, blocked from sight. The fluffiest white rug he’d ever seen muffled his fall, though he still made an audible thump.

“What was that?” Nanny’s voice was louder now, but it still echoed through the doorway.

The mattress creaked and then Lotor’s shirt thwapped down beside him on the rug. “I tripped, Nanny,” Allura said meekly. “I guess I’m still a little tired from the medical ward.”

“Oh, my poor angel,” Nanny tsked, entering the room with shuffling steps. “You’ve been through so much. And look at those pink cheeks, are you coming down with fever?”

“I think I just need some rest.”

“Well go and lay back down, Princess, and I’ll put this tray on the nightstand for you. I’ve brought you a glass of warm milk from the kitchens. It’s just the thing to give you a good night’s sleep.“

Lotor let out a silent huff as he grabbed his shirt and wormed his way under the bed. This woman seemed destined to plague him.

“Thank you, Nanny. That’s very kind.” The mattress shifted above him.

Nanny tromped over and put down the tray, fussing over Allura for several minutes more before turning to go. “Now mind Nanny, and drink all your milk.”

“I will. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, princess,” Nanny said. She turned off the overhead lights, leaving Allura with just the soft glow of a bedside lamp, and then, at long last, she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be traveling and busy for much of the weekend, so I decided to update early. Happy early weekend!


	33. Sleep Depravation

Allura sat up in her wide bed and tried to calm her racing heart. She took a moment to compose herself before leaping out from under the covers to set the door lock, which was a habit she would apparently need to develop. Nanny wouldn’t like it, but it would be easy enough to explain that she felt safer with the locks sealed. It made for an especially convenient excuse because it was true, just not in a way that Nanny might be happy about.

When she returned to the bedroom, Lotor had emerged from hiding. She looked around the space, wondering what he must think of the glossy white furniture and gold-and-pink fabrics. It had been years since Allura had changed anything in here. She might have described her room as comfortable, but it suddenly struck her as girlish. There was even a stuffed lion atop her dresser.

“Well that was… bracing,” he said. His gaze honed in on her, not as much as glancing around at the decor.

She felt a wash of irrational guilt at how she’d reacted to the interruption. “I’m sorry. But if Nanny caught sight of you she’d have shouted for Coran and Keith. And the rest of the team. And probably every guard in the castle.“

“Of course,” he said. One corner of his mouth quirked up in an expression she couldn’t exactly name as a smile. Then he just stood there, staring at her.

She crossed over and took his hand, pushing herself to focus on the pale blue skin beneath her fingers rather than the broader expanse of his bared chest. “Does it bother you that I don’t want them to find out?”

Lotor lifted his free hand and skimmed a thumb over the seam of her lips. “I’m content to be your secret, Allura,” he said. The phrase _for now_ hung thick in the air. “There are even benefits to such an arrangement.”

“B-benefits?”

He gave her that look of dark experience he sometimes used, the one that made her feel young and a little naive, before answering her question with one of his own. “Tell me, how did nearly being caught with me make you feel?”

“Terrified,” she said quickly, considering. What was he getting at?

“And now? Knowing she didn’t suspect anything?”

“Nervous. Shaky.”

“Excited?”

Allura pursed her lips. She ought to deny it, but it _was_ a little thrilling to get away with something her overprotective guardian would so thoroughly disapprove of. “Yes,” she said softly.

An infuriating smirk spread over his face, and he tipped her chin up, daring her to meet his golden eyes. “And that wariness, that fear of being found out will make it all the more exquisite every time I catch you alone and kiss you senseless. Every time you’re in front of others when you bring to mind the things we do behind locked doors.”

Suddenly her cheeks felt hot. “I’d never think about that sort of thing in _public_.”

“No?” Lotor let out a throaty chuckle. “Then I’d suggest you keep to your rooms tomorrow, lover, because I intend to pleasure you so thoroughly you can think of little else.” The blush spread over more of her face, and Lotor’s smile grew.

Warmth pooled low in her stomach, as if she’d felt the words rather than hearing them. _He’s always trying to shock me_ , Allura thought. _But I can be direct, too_. She pushed her embarrassment aside, keeping her voice steady. “Then maybe it’s time we stopped talking.”

Surprise flared in his eyes, and then he brought his lips down on hers. She opened her mouth to him, hungry for the kiss. Her behavior was shameless, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered now was the teasing slide of his tongue.

Lotor was all hard muscle and tightly leashed strength, but his hands were gentle as they curved over her hips. He backed her towards the bed, bunching up her nightgown until Allura felt his calloused fingertips grazing her thigh. She opened the buttons of the gown with a few quick plucks and shrugged the loosened garment off her shoulders, then she hitched herself up on the mattress, entirely nude apart from her white cotton underwear.

As she sat there on the edge of her bed, he unbuckled his belt. Allura caught his eye and then let her gaze drift down, lingering over the taut planes of his chest. She might not have his knack for wild flattery, but she liked his body and she wanted him to know it.

He certainly noticed the extra attention, flexing his shoulders as he stripped down to skin. Allura couldn’t resist watching as he shoved down his underwear, but he didn’t leave her much time to stare before he was at her side, pushing her back on the bedcovers. Lotor left a trail of leisurely kisses down her neck, pausing only long enough to voice a few vulgar compliments about her breasts. That almost set her blushing again, but then he flicked his fingers over one of her stiffening nipples and _oh_! Somehow she forgot to be embarrassed.

His touch sent fire flowing through her veins, and she pulled him closer while her mouth sought his. The next kiss was slow. Thorough. Allura lost herself in it. Her awareness narrowed to this room and this man, to rough hands and soft caresses. It all felt so _good_.

She stroked down his flank, bringing her hand to rest at the curve of his rump, and Lotor let out a growl of satisfaction. It was the most masculine sound she had heard in her whole life. Suddenly he moved over her, pressing her against the bed as he edged a thumb under her panties. “Can we dispense with these?” His voice was low and husky.

The princess didn’t quite trust her own, so she just nodded in reply, canting her hips up as he tugged her underwear down, slipped them off her feet, and leaned over to plant a light kiss on her instep. A second kiss landed near her ankle. Lotor eased up her body, moving slow, his mouth brushing over her calf. Then her knee. Her legs parted, making room for him to settle between them as he nipped lightly at her inner thigh. His hands stroked her all the while, smoothing over her legs, her sides, her stomach. Then he took firm hold of her hips and licked her _there_ , at just the spot that most ached for him. 

Allura gasped. Bliss flooded through her at the barest touch of his tongue. Her hands clutched at the sheets, trying to ground herself in a world that had drifted mercifully free of all propriety or common sense. Lotor made some faint sound, no doubt pleased with himself, before thrusting his mouth against her again.

She arched her back, torn between feeling too much and wanting more. Lotor showed her no mercy, adjusting speed and pressure until he found some combination that made her buck up, her hips lifting from the bed. He slipped his hands beneath her bottom, holding the angle while he lapped at her. The sensation left her moaning. She grabbed for him, tangling her fingers through his hair. Somehow he knew what she needed, moving faster now, tonguing rough circles over that spot that made her squirm.

Her whole body began to tremble, and then _ah_! Suddenly she was _flying_. Lotor’s attentions gentled but did not stop as she cried out beneath him. Wave after wave of heat crested over her until at last he moved his mouth away, kissing up the length of her body and pulling her close. He ghosted a hand over her shoulder, drawing up gooseflesh on her skin, and though she couldn’t see his face she just _knew_ he was smirking again.

She should say something. Do something. She tipped her head up to speak, but words seemed beyond her reach.

“Rest now, sweetling,” Lotor said, his voice gone as soft as his caresses. “You can compliment my performance tomorrow.”

Allura huffed at him, but she felt too sated to be indignant. She drifted off to the feel of his long fingers running gently down her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to leave a comment so far. Y'all are the reason this whole massive, runaway thing is still getting updated.


	34. Back to Work

When Lotor sauntered through the door of the briefing room early the next morning, the four Voltron pilots that he _hadn’t_ just tongue-fucked to the edge of sanity were, to put it mildly, less than pleased. They all started shouting at once. He paid no real attention to their complaints because each yapping expression of outrage was essentially the same. They hated him, and they didn’t want him here.

“That’s enough,” Allura said loudly. Her words held an unmistakable note of command, and the room fell silent.

Lotor turned to her with a smile. “Good morning, princess. Did you sleep well?”

Her cheeks flushed a little, but he might have missed that if he wasn’t looking so closely for a reaction. “Yes, thank you, but that’s hardly the issue right now. I have something important to say.” She folded her hands on the table in front of her, looking over them all in turn. “Things have been unsettled lately, but it’s time to get back to work. Lotor is here because he’s the best source of intel we’ve got on Doom. I know the rest of you are having a difficult time with that, but he has earned my complete trust. That means no more trips to the dungeon. No confining him in his guest room. No more second-guessing everything he says just because he’s the one who said it. I’ve spoken to Coran about this, and he agrees with me.”

Keith, of course, had something to say. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Princess. But this is not a good idea.”

“Neither was handing my lion keys over to five strangers,” she said calmly. “I have more reason to trust Lotor right now than I did to believe in all of you back when we first met.”

That clever one, Pidge, opened his mouth and then closed it again. Hunk’s face went red, and Lance frowned. Keith looked over at Coran, perhaps seeking support, but the old man kept his mouth shut. At least someone here had finally chosen to acknowledge Allura’s authority. And then, while she had them off balance, his princess launched into the rest of the briefing.

Lotor picked a seat at the end of the table, enjoying the stunned expressions of his former foes. They were angry and confused, but it was hard for them to dwell on those feelings while Allura explained revised duty rosters and patrol schedules. She kept her tone bright, as if she was planning a berry picking excursion rather than responding to a planetary blockade.

The pilots squirmed in their seats, clearly uncomfortable, but they were also reluctant to interrupt. Even Keith had to be savvy enough to know a display of temper wouldn’t serve him here. Allura was distracting them with their normal routine, channeling their energies back towards the very real danger of Zarkon and the Doom fleet. By pressing forward with the battle plans, the princess made it clear that any further arguments against Lotor would be a wasted effort. It was as neat a piece of personnel management as he’d ever encountered.

By the time she finished speaking, the others seemed more or less resigned to his presence in the room. Then Coran took the floor. He shared everything they knew about the disposition of Doom’s forces, being careful to distinguish the observable facts from conjecture based on Lotor’s information. Lotor himself spoke only to answer the few questions Coran or Allura lobbed his way.

Once everyone finally focused on the task at hand, the strategy session was much like the ones he was used to. They reviewed troop movements, set perimeters, and planned possible counterattacks. There were a few key differences too, things like a casual indifference to rank and a heavy emphasis on minimizing civilian casualties. Not to mention that Lotor hadn’t made a habit of picturing any of his fellow drule officers in the nude.

He fought to keep the smirk off his face as they wrapped things up, intent on playing the model ally in front of the rest of Allura’s team. Even his best behavior would hardly put their minds at ease, but Lotor wasn’t doing any of this for their benefit. His flight from Doom hadn’t changed his priorities at all; he was still determined to overthrow Zarkon and to protect his princess. If that meant suffering these fools, then he’d grit his teeth and get on with it.

***

Allura allowed herself a sigh of relief once the briefing was over. The atmosphere had been tense, almost stifling, and she’d wanted nothing more than to throw her hands up, run back to her room, and let the rest of them hash things out. But she was the one who brought Lotor here. Seeing him settled in some kind of official capacity was her responsibility. One barely tolerable meeting wouldn’t be enough to handle it, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

As soon as they were through, Coran had whisked Lotor off on a tour of the castle. It would be good for the guards to see Lotor being treated as a guest here, and it would also give the two men a chance to get to know one another. Keith was gone too; he’d walked out without a word to anybody. Allura thought Keith should be the one to take that first step towards fixing their strained relationship, but he didn’t seem ready to make the effort. Maybe she just needed to give him some time.

That left her alone with Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. She’d barely spoken to them since getting home, but now she didn’t know what to say. Thankfully Lance didn’t seem to share that problem. He caught her eye and started speaking with an unusually solemn look on his face. “We owe you an apology, Princess.”

The words stopped her short. “Why would you think that?”

“We didn’t know you were being sedated, but we should have. We should have been the ones to put an end to it.” He folded his arms across his chest.

“It’s still hard to believe Keith could do something like that,” Hunk said, frowning.

When Pidge chimed in, his voice was shaky. “We assumed you were sick because of something Lotor had done, but we ought to have pushed for more answers.”

“We let you down, and we’re sorry,” Lance said. “It won’t happen again.”

A weight Allura didn’t know she’d been carrying suddenly lifted from her shoulders. She was still struggling to come to terms with what Keith and Coran had done, and it was an immense relief to know that her whole team hadn’t been in on the decision. Their suspicion of Lotor was only natural, but the fact that Keith wouldn’t consider her side of the story, that he wouldn’t even _listen_ , had hurt her deeply. Apparently the others were more willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Thank you so much for telling me,” she began, meeting each of their eyes in turn. “But please don’t let this upset you too much. Maybe it’s not the worst thing to learn that even Keith can make mistakes. We are all a part of this team, and we need each other now more than ever.”

The men nodded, looking at least a little reassured. But while it felt great to have things settled between the four of them, Allura wasn’t sure her relationship with the Voltron Force commander could be mended so easily.


	35. Reality Intrudes

The grand tour included guard posts and fortifications as well as more banal sites, which meant that Allura’s advisor, at least, was taking her orders seriously. Lotor showed his appreciation by resisting the impulse to show off how much of the floor plan he had memorized before ever setting foot within these walls.

While they walked, Coran lectured him on the history of the building and told a few dry stories about Allura’s ancestors, but when they returned to the main entrance hall, the man took a less scholarly tone. “The staff have been instructed to answer your questions, but they won’t let you leave the castle or access any potentially sensitive information without permission from either myself or whichever member of the Voltron Force is supervising the current shift. That’s standard for all guests during a security lockdown.”

“So I’ll only get updates on the blockade when Allura is on duty,” Lotor said, frowning.

The advisor shook his head. “The princess has been very emphatic about making her wishes known. I believe you’ll find the others more cooperative than you might expect.”

“Most of the others, perhaps.” It was easy enough to predict Keith’s reaction to any request Lotor might make.

“The captain only wants what’s best for her,” Coran said softly. “We all do, which is why I need to ask if you’ve given any thought to your future plans.”

Lotor’s lip curled. “Is this the part where you try to convince me to leave the planet?”

“Unfortunately, no. The princess has instructed me to say that you’re welcome for as long as you care to stay. But she’ll need to marry, and soon. Your presence during that process will complicate matters.”

The words hit him like a blow, but he couldn’t afford to show weakness here, in the face of an almost-enemy. ”Why the rush?” He kept his voice even. Measured. Almost calm.

“Because this war has dragged on for far too long, and the stores we have won’t last. Even if we repel this blockade and the aid ships begin arriving again, we’ll run out of food by this time next year. Doom’s soldiers scorch our fields nearly as soon as we plant them, and with our industry nearly at a standstill, we can’t afford to buy what we need. Princess Allura will have to take a husband, an extremely wealthy one, or else her planet will starve. I haven’t discussed it with her recently, but we’ve always known this day might come.” Coran said the words flatly, with no note of accusation. He didn’t even sound angry. He stood there with his chin up and his shoulders back, displaying perfect posture while he proposed selling Allura off to fill the bellies of this pack of worthless peasants she insisted on caring for.

Doom would have no place for weaklings such as these.

A hot rage filled his chest at the mere thought of it. There would be no shortage of men with an interest in marrying the princess, even at the cost of joining the war. Allura was young and beautiful, and the noble houses of the Galaxy Alliance would beggar entire star systems for the chance to gain access to Voltron.

Lotor had secret accounts, funds that his father would not have been able to confiscate. It was enough to support him quite comfortably for the rest of his life, but he couldn’t compete with those who still held wealth on an interplanetary scale.

His hands clenched to fists at his side. Allura was _his_. He was the one who had fought to free her. He’d killed to keep her safe. Lotor had given up his very birthright for the princess’s sake, and he’d do it again, without question. _But just a few short days ago_ , he reminded himself, _you were the one pushing her towards an unwanted marriage_. Perhaps this was no more than he deserved.

“I know you’ve had certain… intentions… where the princess is concerned, but those are futile hopes.” There was no trace of satisfaction in Coran’s expression, which is why Lotor could stand still and listen to the man rather than taking a swing at him. “She will always put what’s best for Arus above all other concerns, so if you care for her at all, you’ll stand aside. To do otherwise would only cause her pain.”

And then the old man turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Lotor alone with a set of unwelcome thoughts.

***

Allura spent most of the afternoon with the training sims. The simulator wasn’t as thrilling as actually piloting Blue Lion, but it was satisfying all the same. She could experiment all she wanted to here, free to try things that would, under other circumstances, bring Keith’s voice shouting over the comm channel. 

She shut down the training program with a half hour to spare before her shift in the command center, where she’d be watching the surveillance feeds and supervising planetary defenses in case of an attack. She walked past the drawing room that the Voltron Force pilots had appropriated as sort of a lounge for themselves, but none of her friends were there.

The halls of the castle were quiet. All the security personnel were either on duty or getting what rest they could, and the staff members who’d usually be working on the main levels had been reassigned to ready the emergency shelters for nearby residents. So there was no one nearby to notice when the princess rounded a corner and found herself face to face with Lotor.

His lips stretched into an odd little smile, and suddenly her face felt hot. Allura flicked her eyes towards an archway a few feet from where they stood. One of the side galleries, the kind of place castle residents walked by every day of their lives but rarely set foot in. It wasn’t the most private location — it didn’t even have a door. But as long as they were quiet…

Lotor’s expression grew more feral as he backed through the arch and then edged out of sight of the hall. The princess followed, stepping into his arms and stretching up to set her mouth to his. The kiss was fast and urgent. He pulled Allura tight against him, clutching at her as if it had been years rather than hours since he’d last held her close.

He looked down at her once they finally separated, and there was a touch of uncertainty in those golden eyes. “Shall I come to you tonight?”

It was hard to find her voice, but somehow she managed. “I have to patrol tomorrow, so that’s probably not a good idea.”

He nodded, releasing her from his embrace. His expression had gone wary, but he didn’t press the issue. Allura grabbed at his hand and squeezed it before retreating to the hall. Then she hurried to the command center to relieve Hunk, half-hoping Commander Cossack would choose tonight for his next assault. At least a few dozen Doom fighters were a problem she knew the answer for.


	36. A Proposition

She tossed fitfully that night, adrift in a bed that felt too large without his big body beside her. Lance had relieved the princess from her post nearly two hours ago, and there’d been no sign of a convenient full-scale invasion to distract from her romantic woes.

Allura had always been a good girl. It was important for her to be the pilot her teammates needed and the princess her people deserved. But as she lay there, fully awake with her stomach in knots, she couldn't help but resent the weight of all those expectations.

There were at least a dozen reasons not to pursue more of a relationship with Lotor. He was rash and reckless, and she shouldn’t waste energy on personal concerns while her planet was in crisis. Her friends hated him, her guardians didn’t trust him, and he might have just become a bigger target for King Zarkon than Allura herself. She’d also eventually be expected to settle down in a proper, dynastic marriage with a prince from an Alliance world, no matter how much the thought of that kind of wedding made her queasy.

But not one of those solid, reasonable excuses had gone through her head today as she’d turned him down. When they’d been in the gallery with his kisses fresh on her lips, all Allura could think of was her own fear. She was so very, very afraid that he might be seen. That they’d be found out. That if this continued much longer, everyone would know how infatuated she was with him — and that she had been acting on that dark desire.

It was all so _stupid_. Lotor cared for her. He respected her, and she enjoyed being with him. Even aside from what he’d done for her, from everything he’d gambled and lost, the two of them had forged an undeniable connection. Why was she in such a hurry to toss all that aside?

Alllura sat up and reached for her robe, suddenly angry with herself. She was tired of making safe choices, of living her life based on other people’s expectations. Lotor deserved better, and for that matter, so did she.

***

The former Prince of Doom and scourge of the Galaxy Alliance paced back and forth in his bland guest quarters. He was unaccustomed to being this idle. Lotor’s days were usually filled with the many small, demanding tasks that led to a successful conquest, but here on Arus he was denied a share in the work of preventing one. He had no responsibilities. No assignments. Not even a spot on the ground patrol schedule. All he had, for now, was loosely defined advisory position, which apparently involved wandering the castle at his whim and forcing his way into meetings in which no one other than Allura would welcome his input.

Perhaps tomorrow he’d make use of the exercise room he’d seen on the tour. Surely no one could object to him beating a few of the Arusian training drones into submission. He should also spend some of this excess energy on planning his next moves. He needed a great deal of money, and he needed it fast. He had enough to buy a ship and hire a crew, so maybe he ought to take up a career in piracy. If he worked quickly enough he could hit a few of Zarkon’s treasure fleets before they changed their shipping routes. Of course that would also mean leaving Allura here, among people who would start pressing suitors on her the instant his ship hit open space.

A soft chime sounded at his door, and Lotor scowled. If these people weren’t going to trust him, the least they could do was to leave him in peace. After a moment of grumbling, he stalked over to open the door.

Allura stood there, soft and beautiful and just outside his threshold. She wore a pale pink robe, and her hair was down. “May I come in?”

He stepped out of her way, keeping just enough presence of mind to lock the door again once she passed. Never one to stand in silence, Lotor forced a smile. “What’s the matter, princess? Did you miss me?” He bit off the words, deciding too late that it was probably the wrong thing to say. She didn’t like to be reminded that she wanted him.

This was the part when Allura usually frowned or turned her back to him, so he was taken aback when she looked calmly into his eyes and said a word he hadn’t expected to hear: “Yes.” She reached for him then, taking both his hands. Twining their fingers together. “Before I say anything else, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said. Her voice was confident and clear. “I can’t promise that we’ll have a future together. Too many lives depend on my decisions.”

“I know,” he said, somehow managing not to sound bitter about her priorities. Allura’s dedication to these people was frustrating and inconvenient, but it was also the reason she’d resisted Doom long enough to become a problem worth his attention. If she had lacked that fierce protective instinct, this woman might have lived and fought and died without ever crossing his path. He tightened his grip on her hands.

She peered up at him, her eyes wide and blue enough that Lotor felt sure he could drown in them. Perhaps he already had. “But no matter what happens next,” she said, “I am through with spending every moment of every day holding myself to the standards of some murky future I may not even live to see. I care about you, Lotor. I want to be able to express that while I can. So I was hoping… well. I would very much like for you to make love to me. Please.”

Lotor’s blood turned to fire in his veins. He committed every detail of this moment to memory: his princess standing there, bold yet impossibly delicate. The feel of her small fingers wrapped around his. The slight tremble of her lower lip as she awaited his reaction. “Say it again,” he said, his voice gone harsh with need.

Allura pushed up on her toes then, whispering close against his ear. “Please.”

He drew her slowly back towards the bed.


	37. At Last

Lotor brushed his lips lightly over hers, and a shiver of surprise worked its way down Allura’s spine. She’d assumed he was just going to grab her, losing himself in that same forceful passion he’d shown on board the Daggerstar. Instead, he moved away.

He took a seat on the edge of the mattress, leaving her standing there before him. “Take off your clothes,” he said quietly.

Her cheeks flushed scarlet. Yes, he’d already seen her body, but the idea of baring herself while Lotor stood back and watched… that felt positively scandalous. Then again she had just come to a man’s room in the middle of the night to ask him for sex. She was practically a walking scandal now. 

Allura’s hands dropped to the belt of her floor-length robe and untied it, shrugging out of the garment. It fell away. She remembered, far too late, that her slippers had smiling mouse faces stitched on them. She kicked free of them with what she hoped was a reasonable amount of dignity, and a corner of Lotor’s mouth twitched. The princess narrowed her eyes at him, almost _daring_ him to laugh. But his features settled into an expression of raw desire.

Such an open display of lust would have worried her only a few short weeks ago, sent her running to put her guards or her nanny or even her lion between them. Tonight it made her feel something very, very different. She slipped one of the narrow straps of her nightgown off her shoulder, watching closely as Lotor curled his fingers into the bedcovers. She lowered the other strap. The gown was loose, but Allura clutched at the thin material, holding it in place just above her breasts. When she let the fabric go, it puddled at her feet.

Lotor bit at his lip, exhaling heavily. Then she hooked her thumb in the waistband of her cotton panties. They were all she had left though, and he hadn’t removed a stitch. “You’re overdressed,” she told him.

He raised a brow at that, but he stood and unbuckled his belt. As he shoved down his pants and shorts, she moved closer. She stretched her arms around his neck and tugged the leather tie from his hair, sending snowy white strands tumbling over his shoulders. His hair was soft and thicker than it looked, and she slid her fingers through it. Then she turned her attention to his shirt.

Allura slowly worked each button free, sometimes pausing to run a finger along the exposed wedge of pale, blue skin that she’d revealed. Lotor gazed down at her, his cat-slit pupils gone wide enough to give him a feral air. Once she finished with the buttons, she peeled the shirt off his back. He reached for her then, setting his hands at her waist and bending down for a thorough kiss. It was torturously slow. She pressed herself to him, and he let out a low growl. “Bed. Now.”

The sheets felt cool as she slipped between them. He dimmed the lights and then followed, rolling his big body on top of her and claiming her mouth again. He pressed a knee between her legs, grinding it against the thin cotton of her underwear, and the friction left her moaning.

“You are exquisite,” he murmured, dipping his head to lap at her breast. “So. Incredibly. Fucking. Perfect.” Each word was punctuated with another dizzying swipe of his tongue. Allura had been taught to think of vanity as a sin, but the compliments stirred a fierce surge of pride in her. For him, she wanted to be beautiful. 

The princess reached out to scrape her nails along the sensitive tip of his ear, which got more of a reaction than she bargained for. His hand shot down, and with a jerk and a tear, her panties were gone. Her shocked gasp gave way to a sigh of pleasure as he touched her there. But before long she tensed at the gentle contact, longing for something rougher or faster or _more_. “Lotor, please,” she whispered.

He took pity on her then, dipping his fingers lower. Sliding one of them into her as he worked her more firmly with his thumb. “So wet for me already,” he said, using a greedy tone that roused her almost as much as his caresses. “You feel so goddamn good.”

She kissed him again, arching her back as he added another finger. The sweet stretch of it drove her wild. This was like nothing she’d ever felt. Nothing she knew she _could_ feel, and Allura lost herself to the sensation. She grasped at his shoulders, pulling him close.

All too soon he withdrew his hand. The princess made a huff of complaint, but then Lotor settled himself between her thighs, rubbing his stiff length against her. And _oh_ , that was _amazing_. Her whole body burned for him, but before she could combust into flames he shifted his weight. She felt the tip of him nudging at her.

His golden eyes were locked on hers, watching. Waiting for something. “I want you,” she said softly. And then, one last time, “Please.”

There was a dull bloom of pain as he sank into her, but Lotor left a distracting line of nips and kisses down her neck while she adjusted to the feel of him there. She clutched at him until the worst of the soreness passed. Once she relaxed a little, he caught her gaze again. “All right, lover?”

Allura nodded, and after a few more moments, he began to move. He went slowly at first, filling her inch by careful inch while the ache gave way to a rising tide of need. She cried out, knowing there was still more that she wanted. More she could have, and she lifted her hips to meet him. He let out a low-voiced stream of vulgar praise as he quickened his pace. His hands skimmed over her, teasing and soothing and warming her flesh while the rest of the galaxy fell away. Nothing mattered beyond this room, this bed. His arms.

They found a rhythm together, and he dragged her closer to bliss with every steady stroke. Allura pressed her mouth to his shoulder, whispering his name against his dusky skin.

He groaned and reached a hand down to rub at her again, and that practiced touch set her legs quivering. Suddenly, she bucked beneath him. Swells of ecstasy drove her over the edge, scattering her awareness as the tension inside her unfurled. She gasped at the feel of it. Slid her hands down his back. Rocked against him while his every movement sent hot little aftershocks sparking through her.

After a few more thrusts, his breathing grew ragged and he reached his own shuddering climax. They sprawled together, breathless and sated, until he disentangled himself long enough to find a towel that Allura accepted and a cup of water that she waved away. Then they traded lazy kisses for a time while he traced small circles over her cooling skin. And slowly, without the slightest twinge of guilt or shame for the choice she’d made, the princess fell into peaceful slumber in his arms.


	38. Daybreak

Lotor did not wish to sleep. They had only a few short hours before she’d resume the public distance she insisted on, so why should he waste that time in oblivion? Yes, the sentiment struck him as vaguely pathetic. He didn’t fucking care. Love couldn’t ruin him unless he allowed it to.

He brushed some stray strands of hair from her face and then turned his thoughts back to solving the war. The surest option was a surprise attack, an all-out assault that would cripple Doom’s defenses before Zarkon even suspected the danger. But given the resources that would require, Lotor might as well cross his fingers and wish for a robeast or three. It wasn’t a reasonable plan. He would need to take some kind of more realistic action soon, and until then he’d do his best to convince Allura that he could provide for this whole damned planet if necessary. And even if her old advisor managed to talk her into some rash action, well… a royal husband could die as easily as any other man.

First he needed to buy a ship. Something sleek but well-armed, with enough mercenaries to form a boarding crew. He’d have to be selective enough about his targets to appease Allura’s sensibilities, but stealing from Doom and its allies would have been his priority in any case. It would take years for him to gather a large enough force to take on his father, which meant he should get started as soon as possible. But he also couldn’t leave his princess pinned in by the drule feet. There had to be a way to chase it off, preferably in some showy, dramatic fashion that would impress the locals.

So all he had to do was break the blockade, earn the trust of a skeptical planet, take up piracy, funnel a portion of the profits into feeding his lover’s peasants, and then plunder enough of his own people’s resources to fund the battleships it would take to conquer them. Lotor threw his head back against the pillow and sighed.

Eventually his princess stirred. She pressed a soft kiss to his collarbone and snaked an arm around his waist. “Is it morning yet?”

He glanced out the window at the lightening sky. “Not quite,” he said. There was still a little time before the sun broke the horizon.

“Good.” She nestled against him, yawning.

It would soon be time for them to get up and start the day, but Lotor thought of a detail he had neglected. “I ought to have mentioned this before, but you needn’t worry about any unintended consequences from last night. I have a contraceptive implant.”

“Oh, I’ve got one too,” she said shyly. “Arus may be a conservative planet by your standards, but we’re also a practical one.”

Considering that this place was nearly as contradictory as Allura herself, perhaps that shouldn’t have surprised him. Arus was a world of crumbling old palaces and technological marvels; the home of a people who gave freely to one another despite how impoverished they were. Who fought on no matter how many times they were punished for it. This was exactly the kind of irrational culture that would guard women against the hazards of pleasure but also forbid them its joys.

He rolled atop his princess and kissed her until they were both a little breathless. She twined her arms around him, moving her mouth sweetly against his. There wasn’t time to do more, and all too soon the dawn forced her to rise and seek out her clothing. Seeing her that way, flushed and still wanting him even as she wriggled back into her nightdress, left him feeling smug. As cruel as it might be to leave her less than satisfied, Lotor would certainly enjoy making it up to her. Hopefully tonight.

***

Allura’s day passed in a blur. 

She rushed through the morning strategy meeting, finding it awkward to read the duty schedules to Coran and the boys while Lotor’s eyes were on her. It wasn’t that he said or did anything inappropriate; outright flirtation might actually have been easier to ignore. Instead he just watched her very, very carefully, letting the barest smile tug at the corner of his lips. Part of her wanted to scowl at him for being such a distraction. A slightly larger part wished there was some good excuse to end the meeting by putting a locked door between the two of them and the rest of the castle.

After the briefing she helped bring some ration packs up from storage and inventoried a few cases of medical supplies. She barely had time to grab lunch before her shift in the control room started, and once Coran relieved her she still had to fly out with Blue Lion for the evening patrol.

There’d been reports of drule soldiers in the canyon nearby, but Allura’s scans didn’t find them. Any Doom forces in the area must have moved on. After her first few sweeps she put Blue Lion through its paces, cruising through the canyon at speeds that would have been dangerous for anyone less familiar with its juts and turns.

Flying was always a joy for her, but it was also a relief to have a break from the tense atmosphere of the castle. The Castle of Lions had always been a sanctuary, a place that let Allura feel connected to both her heritage and her people. Later on, it was a welcome haven from Zarkon’s constant attacks. But her home wasn’t as restful as usual now that there was such deep division in the ranks of the Voltron Force.

It was obvious from the start that bringing Lotor here would ruffle a few feathers. But she assumed that as her captain, and more importantly her friend, Keith would at least hear her out. Hadn’t she earned that much? The rest of the team might not be happy about her choice, but she thought they might be willing to give Lotor a chance now that Allura had vouched for him. Why couldn’t Keith do the same?

Her scheduled patrol time passed all too quickly, and Allura turned Blue Lion towards its watery den. But before she could plunge her ship down into the lake, a deafening roar sounded from behind her. She whirled her ship around, finding it nose-to-nose with its larger, more powerful counterpart: Black Lion.

“Hey, Princess,” Keith’s voice rang out over the speaker in her helmet. “How about a quick training run? We should make sure your skills are still sharp after your time away.”

Allura frowned, launching her ship up to safe training elevation. It would take more than a couple of weeks to dull her reflexes, but if Keith wanted proof of that, she’d gladly give it to him.


	39. Training Exercise

The small drawing room favored by members of the Voltron Force was a surprisingly amusing place to spend an afternoon. The constant interruptions made it difficult for Lotor to focus on his piracy plans, but any slight delays were worth seeing the sudden stiffness in each pilot’s shoulders as they found him in their sanctuary.

Pidge came in first, spotted his unwelcome visitor, and frowned. But he walked over to what was seemingly his usual chair, unwilling to cede the space. Perhaps this little man was made of sterner stuff than Lotor had given him credit for. Lance and Hunk soon followed. Both of them made soft, indignant noises, but neither challenged his right to be there. Instead they made a determined effort to ignore him, which suited Lotor just fine. 

He craved neither their attention nor their company, but he also wouldn’t cower in his quarters just to make them comfortable. And while he could just as easily have chosen to linger in any of the other public rooms, it might be useful to get a sense of how Allura’s team would react to him without her around.

The pilots sat together in a small knot, gazes sliding past Lotor whenever one of them inadvertently glanced his way. They held their conversation to unimportant subjects and laughed a little too loudly. Just when the drule thought he may have exhausted the novelty of this particular scene, Lance jabbed at a control panel beside his chair. “Do you think they’ve started yet?”

“I dunno,” Pidge said, cutting his eyes Lotor’s way. “But should we…”

Lance waved a hand, seeming to dismiss his friend’s concern. “Keith asked us to watch, to tell him what we think. Our training methods are hardly a secret, and even if they were, His Not-So-Royal Highness here is backing Allura now, right?”

The others eyed Lotor warily, but that bit of mockery wasn’t worth responding to. These men treated him like a trespasser because he _was_ one. He had pushed himself into their spaces and shaken up their tidy routines, and he didn’t give a damn if they minded. Their insults wouldn’t trouble him though, not as long as they kept faith with his princess. Not as long as they protected her while he was away.

The large viewscreen in the wall flicked to an image of the skies above Arus and showed two lions, the blue and the black, flying in formation. They turned and shot synchronized laser bursts at some imaginary target before gaining more altitude and reversing course. Then the pair went through a series of high-speed maneuvers, all perfectly timed and executed with precision. The combination was showy but inefficient, and it would also leave them open to a devastating counterattack by any enemy fast enough to claim the advantage. “No wonder you’re often so close to losing,” Lotor muttered.

Hunk was almost eager to take offense. “Hey, we’ve kicked _your_ scrawny butt plenty of times.”

“Thanks only to those lions.” Lotor pointed at the screen, where the next attack sequence was playing out exactly as he guessed it would. “Now they’ll roll, followed by a seventy degree dive.”

The lion ships rolled and dived on cue, and Hunk’s eyes boggled.

“Feint to the left. Hard right. Then a missile attack.”

Lance’s hand raked through his hair as the lions completed each move and fired their training missiles. He glared at Lotor and tapped the control pad again, adding the audio feed from Black Lion’s comm channel.

“Half-turn,” Lotor said. “Claw attack. Full reverse. Dodge.” After he’d spoken, everyone in the room heard Keith give the same string of commands.

Pidge chimed in. “Maybe some of our patterns are a little repetitive, but we use them because they work.”

“Are you certain of that?” Lotor raised a brow. “It’s become harder and harder for you to defeat Haggar’s robeasts of late, and that’s because each new model is programmed with the knowledge of every fight you’ve been in before. They’re learning your routines. If this continues long enough, one of the creatures will finally exploit that weakness.”

“Well what do you expect us to do?” Hunk’s voice took on a defensive air. “We can’t change all our habits overnight.”

Lotor gave them a languid shrug. “Have you ever watched Allura when she flies on her own? The way she pilots Blue Lion when you lot aren’t stifling her? If you’re willing to shake off those tired Alliance formations, you could do worse than to learn from her example. She’s always been the most unpredictable element of your battles. The one who’s difficult to plan for.” Then he turned and left them there, gaping stupidly after him while the pair of lions still bolted back and forth across the viewscreen.

***

Later that night, as he held her, Allura told him about the training exercise. Keith’s advice to her afterward — to work on tightening up her turns and combinations — was as useless as the man’s old-fashioned maneuvers. Lotor kept his criticism to himself though; he was in no mood to provoke a fight. It was far more pleasant to lie here with Allura in his arms, watching her small hands slide through his unbound hair while she told him about her day.

He wasn’t used to these kinds of casual intimacies. While he had tried to be considerate towards his regular partners, he never would have been this content to hear one to ramble on about every stray thought that crossed their mind. And he certainly wouldn’t have permitted anyone else to handle him so freely, toying with his hair as if he was some pampered pet. Lotor was a drule warrior, and no matter how badly his father might wish to deny him, he was a man of royal blood. He was accustomed to being afforded a certain level of respectful distance. No part of that had _ever_ involved having his hair plaited into a loose braid by a lover who giggled when she saw the result of her effort.

Of course his feelings for Allura had changed more than just his bedroom proclivities. Lotor had traded his crown for this woman, which was as ridiculous a move as he could possibly imagine. He’d also gone into exile for her sake, surrounding himself with people who would happily consign him either to prison or to hell. It was hard to see these as more than minor inconveniences under the circumstances though; when compared with winning Allura’s affection, conquering an empire seemed less daunting a task. 

He would succeed on Arus because he had to, because he would allow no other outcome. If his fate were the only thing at stake, he might hole up somewhere and chase pleasure for a time while more carefully considering his campaign against his father. But he had Allura to think of now. The idea of failing her was intolerable.

So after she finally finished her tale he held her closer still, and together they explored a few of the other kinds of madness that she inspired in him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're doing a slightly early update this week because every bit of my free time tomorrow will be spent on the new Legendary Defender episodes. ;)


	40. The Deadline

They settled into a daily routine easier than Lotor might have expected. He kept up his attendance at every regular status meeting or strategy session, and at times, they even considered his suggestions. He had no illusions about his place here; it was still clear they only tolerated him to placate Allura. But Pidge and the old man seemed to respect good ideas too much to dismiss one solely on its source. Some days, they brought the others around.

Once the daily patrol routes were handed out among the lion pilots, Lotor tended to wander the castle looking for whichever of Allura’s friends would be most enlightening to shadow for a time. That often ended with him lurking in the command center or watching something dull, like Hunk’s constant tinkering with the castle’s power grid. Then after the midday meal, he’d help Allura with whatever mundane chores she had assigned herself. The tasks she chose were better left to servants, but Lotor didn’t complain. Working with Allura in such a public way would help these people see him as part of her life.

Of course there was one member of the castle staff that showed no signs of adjusting to his presence. Allura’s ogre of a nanny hovered over them constantly, as if her chaperonage would somehow prevent Lotor from acting just how he pleased. In fact just now, as they were sorting through supplies for the castle’s emergency shelters, he heard the woman’s shrill squawking from across the room. “Don’t stand so close!”

He sighed heavily and took a half-step away from his princess, who shot him an apologetic smile. Lotor looked back at Nanny over his shoulder. “If you’re so concerned about it, you could just teach me how to court her in a way that will meet your standards.”

“Of all the cheek!” Nanny huffed. “You aren’t meant to be courting her at all, you scoundrel!”

It was already a bit late for that, but he supposed Allura wouldn’t want him to raise the subject of how they were spending their nights. “There is no other person in the galaxy that I’d tolerate this for,” he said, pitching his voice too low for Nanny to hear.

Allura’s blue eyes sparkled. “I do appreciate it,” she said softly. “And they’ll come around. You’ll see.”

He wasn’t so sure, but if her optimism proved to be unfounded, then she needed to decide for herself how to handle that. While Lotor was something of an expert at overstepping his bounds, he might need to give the practice up, at least where Allura was concerned. His princess already had enough people struggling to restrict her behavior.

***

Later that evening, when Allura learned the extent of the latest threat to her people, she sunk her aching head into her hands. “How could this have happened, Coran?”

Her old advisor sighed. 

He’d asked her to stop in after her evening patrol, and she thought they’d be talking about the usual sort of castle-related business. Allura had become more involved with the day-to day effort of running things since her return. But instead Coran calmly and frankly explained that Arus was under threat of a wide-scale famine, and then he’d set out his proposal for dealing with the crisis.

When Coran finally answered her, his voice was grave. “Alliance relief ships can’t run the blockade, and they weren’t always on time even before Doom’s fleet arrived. And now it’s been three years since we’ve had a decent harvest.”

The Galactic Alliance had never been their key source of supplementary rations, though. “What about the commodities market? Or buying from one of our treaty partners?”

“They will no longer extend us additional credit,” Coran said, shaking his head. “We owe a staggering amount, and everyone seems to think it's become too much of a risk to lend us more. I did find a bank willing to buy us two years of ration packs, but I refused the offer. They wanted us to sign over Green Lion as collateral.”

“And we could never sell one of the _lions_ ,” Allura said, fighting to keep any trace of bitterness from her voice. Coran was right, of course. Voltron was her planet’s legacy as well as its only viable path to a future. But while the great robot had held Doom’s forces at bay, it hadn’t truly saved Arus, at least not yet. It seemed the only way to keep her world on its feet would be for Allura to leverage herself rather than her lion ships.

Coran set a hand on her shoulder. “This… it’s not what I wanted for you.”

She turned from him then, staring out his office window. The moon would be up soon to bathe the rolling hills of her homeland its cool light, but for now all she saw was darkness. “Don’t worry, Coran. I’ll do my duty.”

“You always have,” Coran said. He returned to his desk and tapped at the console, and his voice took on a more practical tone. “I’ve found a set of likely prospects, all from worlds with the financial and military strength to join in the war effort. I’m sending you the files, so if you choose two or three of them I’ll arrange the meetings.”

The princess nodded. She went back to her rooms and flicked through several of the files, which blurred into a stew of family histories, military records, and educational accomplishments. Lives reduced to bare data. There was nothing here to let Allura know if these men would challenge her. If they’d tease her. If they’d risk something they valued for her sake. 

She’d have to read all this in detail; she owed it to her people to make a careful decision. It would keep until morning though.

When her thoughts were this muddled she usually took out Blue Lion, but an unscheduled flight during emergency conditions would worry people. Instead Allura did the next best thing, reopening her terminal connection long enough to send a short message to the only person who might help to soothe her.


	41. A Conversation

The message light that flashed on Lotor’s guest terminal caught his attention as soon as he entered the room. A few days ago they’d finally given him access to the terminal’s public information system, filled with such thrilling local details as the weather report and a brief history of the Castle of Lions. He could send and receive messages from inside the castle as well, but since nearly everyone here hated him, that feature had gone unused.

He crossed to the terminal, retrieved the message, then immediately stalked back out into the hall.

_I need you. -A_

She’d sent it nearly an hour ago. They planned to meet in her room later tonight, so why would she summon him now rather than simply waiting on his arrival? There could be a trap in this somehow. A forged message and some conspirators lying in wait. Lotor smiled grimly at the thought. Anyone wishing to bait him with his princess would get more than they’d bargained for.

Down the hall. Up the stairs. Then pause and wait for the guard to pass. The predictable patrol routes were a convenience for him now, but someday he was going to have a sharp conversation with the head of the castle’s security team. They ought to be thanking him for taking up residence in Allura’s bed; at least it meant there was one person capable of standing between her and an intruder.

Once the guard had gone by, Lotor made his way to her door and keyed in the lock bypass code she’d given him. He found her in the bedroom, standing in the dark. She looked out towards her balcony with red-rimmed eyes.

“If you tell me who caused this, I’ll deal with them,” he said gruffly.

Allura let out a sigh. “You can’t just go around beating up anyone who hurts my feelings.”

“I don’t see why not,” he said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “And if you let me handle things my way a few times, they’ll all learn to stop vexing you.”

One corner of her mouth turned up in something he couldn’t quite call a smile. “Maybe, but in this case it wouldn’t help. I don’t think even you could handle a famine with your fists.”

“Ah,” Lotor said, as understanding dawned. The old man must have finally raised the possibility of a royal wedding. “How much time do you have to turn things around?”

“Six months,” she answered. “Maybe eight or nine if we can end the blockade soon. After that, I’ll have to marry someone who can keep my people fed.”

A hot swirl of rage erupted in his chest, but Lotor held himself to a short string of curses. Indulging his temper would only leave her more unsettled. “Stall as long as you possibly can. I can help, but I will need every day you can spare me.”

Allura’s eyes grew wary. “What are you going to do?”

“Among other things, I’m going to keep some puffed-up princeling from forcing me to kill him,” he said dryly. After seeing her shocked expression, Lotor realized that this was not, perhaps, the most reassuring thing he could have told her. He gathered his princess into a loose embrace and tried again. “If there was someone else, someone you wanted to be with, it might be different. But I will not stand aside while a stranger takes advantage of your misfortune.”

She cocked her head to one side. “This from the man who spent years trying to marry me by force?” The reproach might have stung if there was any real anger behind it, but instead of scolding him further, she tucked her head against his chest.

Lotor sighed. He had hoped they could leave their awkward history behind them, but if it was gnawing at her, then he wanted to get more comfortable before discussing it. And he damned sure didn’t want to take this subject to bed with them.

He made a quick circuit of the room, claiming a set of wide pillows from the couch as well as a large, soft throw, and he had quite a comfortable nest arranged on the balcony by the time Allura joined him. She sat and tucked the blanket around them while he stretched his long body out beside her. Then he produced a small flask of some dubious local whiskey that he’d liberated from the kitchens. 

The liquor burned its way down his throat. He offered the flask to Allura, who took a sip and then made a sour face before handing the flask back over. 

“I doubt I could have gone through with it,” he said at last.

“What do you mean?”

Lotor shrugged. “The wedding. I would have done everything in my power to change your mind, but I don’t think I’d have married you without your consent.”

“Oh,” she said softly.

He took another heavy draw from the flask. “Before she bore me, my mother was one of Zarkon’s slaves,” he said flatly. “Having a son gave her slightly more status, but she still lived and died in a cage of my father’s making.” 

Allura slipped her hand into his but kept silent, and he was grateful for it.

“It would have been difficult to push you into a similar situation,” he said, looking carefully up at the sky. “But _gods_ , I wanted to. I wanted to tuck you away in my chambers at Castle Doom. To keep you out of this war. If you’d ever yielded to me, I would have worshipped you. Spoiled you. Made you mine completely. I would have given you everything of any value in this universe except your freedom.”

They sat quietly together in the dark for a time, and when Allura finally spoke, her voice was gentle. “That would have destroyed me, I think.”

Of course it would have. But a small part of him still half-wished he’d managed it, especially if the alternative was watching her marry another man. “I see that now,” he said, trying to quash those regrets. “Which is why I’m going to make damn sure you aren’t pressed into anything else.”

She snaked an arm around his middle, and then they leaned back against the pillows to watch the stars pass by. Eventually he carried her in to bed. His princess had dozed off in the cool night air, but for Lotor, sleep was more elusive. He spent the time thinking over the many drastic things he might need to do to stop this marriage plot. Some of them were bound to upset Allura, assuming she learned of them. But if all else failed, disappointing his princess was a risk he might need to take.


	42. Dissention

The days passed, and Lotor still couldn’t figure out how to lift that damned blockade. He also couldn’t understand why the Doom ships weren’t more actively menacing the planet. His original plan had involved a series of simultaneous raids, each one heavy enough to make the Arusians split their defenses. He’d meant to harry them. To tire them out. But Cossack just left the fleet lurking up there, useless for anything but keeping incoming ships at bay.

Lotor’s carefully designed air strikes had also not materialized. Reports had filtered in of drule scouts in the forest near the castle, but any recon troops that were clumsy enough to be spotted by human villagers couldn’t prove much of a danger. What the hell was Cossack doing up there?

Even the vagaries of Doom’s new strategy weren’t enough to distract him from the misery of this breakfast table, though. Allura had drawn the early shift in the command center this morning, so Lotor suffered through a stiff, under-seasoned meal with the members of the household who weren’t on duty. The pilots made a few halting attempts at conversation that withered without the princess here to smooth things over. Every person in the room would have been more comfortable if he’d taken a tray to his room, but that was too damned bad. He was a guest here. He’d continue to insist on being treated like one.

Keith had thawed somewhat towards the princess, but he still tried his best to act as if Lotor wasn’t there. Which meant, of course, that Lotor began to go out of his way to acknowledge him. It left Lotor in the unusual position of looking like the more reasonable party in their dispute, which he found highly amusing until a couple of nights ago, when Allura pressed at his hand and thanked him sincerely for trying. The game wasn’t much fun after that.

But if the dining room was already this awkward, he saw no harm in making his feelings plain. So he turned to Coran and stirred things up a little. “I still can’t believe you’re pushing Allura to marry whichever opportunistic windbag makes you the most favorable offer.” Then he cooly took another bite of dried sausage.

The words hung flat in the air for a moment. There were no cries of surprise or outrage, so news of this development had clearly made its way around the castle by now. As Allura’s friends, shouldn’t these people be concerned about her future?

“I hate to admit it,” Lance said slowly. “But Lotor’s right. Our mission here has always been about giving freedom to the people of Arus — and that should include the princess.” The other pilots all looked down at their plates, but Pidge nodded along with the words.

Nanny’s lower lip wobbled slightly, but she held to the official line. “I’m sure Princess Allura can find a nice young man among the suitors Coran picked out.”

“A ‘nice young man’ who won’t lift a finger to defend her until there is something in it for him?” It was difficult to believe that even the Arusians were this naive. Doom’s intentions towards the rest of the galaxy had been brutally clear for decades now; it was long past time to pick a side. Any Alliance prince that hadn’t already joined in the fight was likely an idler, a coward, or an absolute fool.

Hunk ruffled his thick fingers through his hair. “I don’t like this any better than the rest of you, but Arus needs food! What else do you expect us to do?”

“I’ll keep my own counsel on that for now,” Lotor said. “But if you were willing to let a marriage try to solve things, you should have given my suit more consideration. Our wedding would have ended the war rather than extending it, and if nothing else, at least Allura would have had a husband who cared for her.”

A hollow laugh rang out from the far end of the table. “You only care about yourself, Lotor,” Keith said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And everyone in this room knows it.”

Lotor put down his fork and locked eyes with the captain. “If it comforts you to believe that, I won’t argue. It’s not as if your opinion of me is the one that matters.”

From his spot near the head of the table, Coran cleared his throat. “I feel a need to remind you all that this is Princess Allura’s decision. I doubt she’d appreciate any of you trying to make it on her behalf.” Then the old man rose and left the room.

His words seemed to shame most of the rest of the table, and Lotor had already said everything he wanted to. So they all sat in silence, focusing on their neglected meals, until Hunk cast a longing look at the food left on Coran’s plate. “Um, guys? Do you think he’s going to be back to eat that?”

***

Princess Allura could remember a time when it was relaxing to sit and have a cup of tea in the formal parlor with Nanny each night, but since returning from Doom, their evening ritual had become more of a trial. 

Nanny had always been overprotective, especially where boys were concerned. Keeping Allura safe was one of her duties though, so the princess tried not to take it personally. But she wasn’t that starry-eyed little girl anymore; Allura wanted to be more responsible for arranging her own life. She was also more than ready to stop hearing breathless gossip about every little thing a member of the household said or did while she wasn’t around.

“…and then that monster had the nerve to suggest, in front of all of us, that he cares for you!” Nanny’s tone fairly dripped with outrage.

Allura waved off her concern. “It’s not as if everyone doesn’t know that already.”

Her old nurse sputtered. “I will never believe it, princess, and neither should you. A man like that is only interested in one thing.”

Heat rushed to Allura’s face, and something inside her gave way. “You’re wrong. And instead of making light of his feelings you should be grateful for them. If Lotor didn’t love me, I’d be dead.”

Nanny’s eyes went as round as saucers. “You can’t honestly credit him with rescuing you,” she said, raising her voice. “Not when he’s the one who brought you to that awful place!”

The princess took a deep breath, reclaiming her composure. “He took me prisoner because we were enemies, Nanny. And I was trying to do the exact same thing to him.” 

“That’s entirely different! On Arus we give everyone an honest trial — even when that’s more than they deserve.”

Allura nodded. “I think our customs are better too, but if you and I had been born among the drule, we might feel differently. Lotor spent his entire life on a world where power is everything and winning is all that really matters. But when I was in danger, he chose me over Zarkon and Doom. He gave up his home to save my life, and nobody here is the least bit thankful for that. You’ve all repaid him with nothing but suspicion.”

“Because he’s attacked this planet over and over again. That’s something I can’t just get over.” Nanny crossed her arms in a depressingly familiar gesture of finality.

“Then it’s probably best if we don’t talk about it anymore,” Allura said firmly. “Lotor is welcome to stay here at the castle as long as he likes, and I don’t want to hear any more complaints about him.”

Nanny shook her head, frowning. “This is the worst kind of foolishness, princess. I just hope you realize that before it’s too late.” She walked out in a huff, mumbling something under her breath about unruly children who didn’t mind their elders.

That… could have gone more smoothly. It felt as if the mood in the castle was getting worse, and Allura didn’t know how to fix things when her loved ones weren’t willing to bend a little. Had Lotor truly been so awful that nothing could redeem him in their eyes? And if even those closest to her doubted her judgement so deeply, how could she expect the people of Arus to follow her once she became their queen?

Allura retreated to her rooms to prepare for bed. All these late nights with Lotor might not be the wisest way to ease her troubled mind, but he was the only person in the castle who was wiling to accept that she’d changed. She wouldn’t give that comfort up. Not yet. Not until she had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... August has been rough. In the past month I've had some family issues, unexpected travel, and then a week-long summer flu. It's left me a little behind, especially because of a structural change that means I need to squeeze a new chapter in among the stuff I've already got drafted. I'm going to try to keep up my regular weekly posting schedule in the coming months, but it's possible that I may miss the occasional Friday.
> 
> Even if things slow down, I can promise this story won't be abandoned. I've got several chapters worth of drafts and a complete outline for the ending, and I'm really looking forward to sharing all that with you. But I'm trying to balance this fanfic with the space opera novel I'm working on as well as, you know, having a day-to-day life.
> 
> With luck, I'll wrangle it all into place and things will go on as usual, but I wanted to warn everyone just in case. As always, thanks to everyone who's taken the time to comment and share their thoughts. Even fun, fluffy writing can be isolating sometimes, so it really does mean a lot.


	43. Another Night

When Lotor reached her chamber that night, his princess was ill at ease. She favored him with a slight smile once she caught sight of him, but her greeting held a hint of disapproval. “If you’re going to start an argument, could you at least avoid doing it in front of Nanny from now on?”

He sighed heavily as he sat to pull off his boots. “If I made your day more difficult, I apologize. But they need to be confronted with what they’re asking you to do.”

“None of them actually want this,” she said, crossing over to stand before the balcony. “It’s not their fault.”

“And what’s happening to Arus isn’t your fault, but they’re all expecting you to pay the price. They should be working on some other solution.”

Allura turned to look at him, and the expression on her face was difficult to read. “The other night, when you told me you could help. You aren’t planning anything… bad, are you?”

“Of course not,” he said, trying to keep the frustration from his voice. “I know all too well that you’ll reject my aid if you don’t like my methods.” Gathering enough funds to take care of all this was going to be outrageously difficult in any case, so he may as well at least try to saddle himself with whatever moral restrictions it would take to appease her. Lotor walked over to set a hand against her back.

“Please don’t put yourself in any more danger for my sake,” she said softly. “Arus is my responsibility.” Then she peered up at him with those large, blue eyes.

He shook his head. “I didn’t pluck you out of that pit just to send you headlong into some other wasteful sacrifice, Allura. And I can’t stay here forever, hiding behind your skirts until Zarkon manages to dig me out. But all that will have to wait until we lift the blockade, so there’s no sense in you worrying about it now.”

Her brow furrowed, and he realized that telling his princess not to worry was likely to be as effective as telling the stars not to shine. Perhaps stronger measures were called for.

“You don’t have to solve it all tonight,” he said, stepping around behind her to massage the base of her neck. He smoothed his hands over her back until he found a hard knot of muscle beneath her shoulder blade. Then he worked at the spot with his thumbs, kneading it to release the tension.

“You’re just trying to distract me,” she said.

Wholly unashamed by the ploy, he leaned down to whisper at in her ear. “Is it working?”

“Maybe.” She turned to him, stretching up to plant a gentle kiss against the corner of his mouth.

Lotor let out a low sound of satisfaction and scooped her into his arms, carrying her over to the big bed. He stripped her down as slowly as he could manage. When he pulled off his own shirt, she looked him over with an eager expression.

 _Gods_. He was hard in an instant, still as hungry for her now as he’d been before she permitted him such liberties. If anything, these days he wanted her more. He loved her soft curves. Her shining hair. The delightful noises she made when she lost herself in ecstasy. He loved he slight weight of her draped across his chest once they’d exhausted one another, and the way she clung to him in her sleep afterward.

She fumbled at his belt, and Lotor smiled against her skin while they made short work of the rest of his clothes. Then he caressed every tantalizing inch of her that was within reach. He leaned in, brushing his lips against hers, but he pulled back as soon as she tried to deepen the kiss.

Her mouth formed into a pout. “Are you going to make love to me or spend half the night teasing me first?”

And didn’t _that_ spark an intriguing idea? “The latter sounds promising,” he said. Allura’s eyes went wide as he eased her arms above her head and gestured for her to flatten her palms against the lacquered headboard. Once she was in position, he stroked a slow circle over her clit. Her head fell back at the touch, so he stilled his fingers to regain her attention. Then he nodded at her hands. “If you move them, I’ll stop. Do you understand?”

Allura blushed, but she held his gaze. “Yes, Lotor.”

He lowered his mouth to her neck, and she turned her head, baring her throat to him. The sight stirred a few of his darker instincts, but he resisted the urge to mark her. Instead, he nipped lightly at the flesh just above her collarbone.

His lips followed the trail his fingertips had blazed until he settled his shoulders beneath her parted thighs. She made a sharp, breathy sound of pleasure as he set his mouth to her, and her eyelids fluttered shut. He started off slowly, finding a steady rhythm that would rouse her passion by degrees. 

She was beautifully responsive. Her muscles tensed, relaxed, and tensed again, reacting to every change of pace or pressure. The quick hitch in her breath told him she was getting close, and so did the fact that she forgot herself enough to thread her slender fingers through his hair.

Lotor froze, giving her an expectant look, and she dutifully moved her hand back to the headboard. The sly smile on her face suggested she wasn’t appropriately sorry for the lapse, so he punished her with more of what they both wanted. He thrust his tongue against her, working at her clit until her body quivered beneath his touch. But each time his princess neared her peak, he moved slower. Softer. Leaving her desperately in need. 

He kept his eyes locked on her face, drinking in every nuance of expression that his torment invoked. She was the most beautiful goddamn thing he’d ever seen. And the fact that she _chose_ to do as he asked, to place herself entirely at his mercy, had him nearly as turned on as she must be by now.

She rocked against him, moaning. A kinder man might have given way at that. Might have pushed her to fall into boneless pieces in his arms. But unfortunately for Allura, kindness was one of the few things he’d never been accused of.

Again and again, they flirted with the edge. He was intoxicated by the taste of her, by the sweet little gasps and sighs he wrung from her lips. And then at last, after nearly an age of relentless stimulation, she remembered her voice. “Lotor, please…”

He pumped a finger inside her, curling it as he lifted his head. “Hmmm?”

“I need you.” She was quiet. Nearly breathless.

He’d planned to make her beg a little, but Lotor’s own patience was at an end. He had to have her. He’d go mad if he didn’t. So he surged up, guiding one of her legs around his waist as he drove into her. 

She was hot and slick and so very ready, and the feel of it almost left him undone. Once he’d paused long enough to ensure he wouldn’t embarrass himself, he took her with deep, unhurried strokes. Allura arched her back, moving with him while he dropped rough kisses on that sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder.

He gripped at her hips and changed his angle slightly, and… _there_. Her whole body shuddered as she finally found release. She bucked beneath him, breathing heavy as he told her precisely how good it felt to have her come so hard around his cock. He fucked her gently through the aftershocks, and when she’d settled a little, he began to thrust faster. Only one thing was lacking.

“Touch me, sweetling,” he said. His voice was coarse, thick with longing, and his princess obliged him. She trailed her fingers lightly over his back and shoulders for a time; then she brought one hand down to cup at his ass. _Gods_. He came in a rush, every nerve ending in his body giving way to a searing flash of pleasure, a bliss so bright it was almost painful.

It struck him, clearer than ever before, that being with this woman had ruined him for any other life. Six months ago, the thought would have enraged him. He was the conqueror. The seducer. The scion of an empire. How could any enemy, even a cherished one, bring him to heel? Lotor suppressed an uneasy sigh, and then he cradled his princess against his chest while he whispered every endearment his freshly shattered pride would allow.

He was going to fix things for her. For them both. Allura had been his obsession for years, but she was more than that now. And no power in this galaxy would part them except, perhaps, for her will.


	44. The Match

After a short, hard run Lance burst into the pilot’s lounge, and thankfully, Allura was there. “Um, Princess? Can you come with me to the training room? Right now?”

She was on her feet in an instant. “What is it, Lance? What’s happened?”

“Nothing yet,” he said, feeling uneasy. Maybe he should have stayed put. Kept his mouth shut instead of running straight to tell Allura. Too late to worry about that now, though. “But I think it might be a good idea for you to be there.”

When they reached the training room, Keith and Lotor were still locked in combat. Both men wore matching looks of cold determination. The swords in their hands were blunt practice blades, but they were heavy enough to do real damage if someone got careless.

Allura took a step forward, like she was about to interfere. Lance wasn’t so sure that was the best idea. “They’re just supposed to be sparring,” he said quietly. “As long as they remember that part, it might be good to let them finish.” And maybe just having her here would remind the guys to play nice.

The princess didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t call out to them yet, either.

It was Lotor who noticed her first. He grinned and bobbed his head her way, then he struck — the sneak! — when Keith glanced over. But if Lotor thought the captain of the Voltron Force would fall for such a cheap distraction, he was dumber than he looked. Keith still had his sword at a guard position, and he managed to parry the blade.

The two soon settled back into the fight, trading a series of quick feints and slashes. As Keith moved through a set of well-practiced positions, he focused on his footwork and struck out only when there was a chance he’d connect. Lotor’s style was bolder, almost wild, but he managed to be aggressive without leaving himself too exposed.

Suddenly Lotor leaped in the air, spinning halfway around while chopping down from above. Keith blocked with his usual skill; though instead of following up, he stepped back and regained a defensive posture.

Lotor smirked at the show of caution. “That’s always been your problem, you know,” he said, making a half-hearted swipe as he spoke. “So content to play the waiting game. To leave things as they are.”

“Just letting you waste your strength on things that will never work out, Lotor,” Keith replied, circling the other man. “You can’t keep that up forever.”

They crossed swords again, and Keith finally slipped an attack through his opponent’s defense. Lotor let out a hearty laugh as he dodged. “I can assure you that I’ve had no complaints about my stamina,” he said dryly.

Keith scowled and brushed his hair out of his eyes. His technique was, as always, nearly perfect, but Lotor had a longer reach and a little more power behind his blows. It was hard to tell who had the upper hand until one of Keith’s swings went wide.

It was a simple mistake, a positioning error that only mattered because of the pace of the fight. Unfortunately Lotor was quick to seize that opportunity. The drule slid into a lunge, forcing Keith to leap away and regain his footing. He’d barely recovered his balance by the time Lotor moved to reengage.

A thin smile stretched across Lotor’s face, which provoked Keith into a thrust that seemed awfully hard for a practice match. Allura let out a gasp. Maybe she’d been right to worry about this. Lotor blocked with the flat of his blade, and his counter drove Keith a few more steps back. 

Lance decided to take advantage of that separation. “Looks like you got a good workout in,” he said. “It’s probably time for a break.”

The men ignored him. Keith gritted his teeth and adjusted his stance; maybe he’d realized Lotor was backing him into the wall. Their swords clashed together again and again, moving faster with every pass. After Keith’s next overenthusiastic attack, Allura finally spoke up. “That’s enough,” she said loudly. Her voice wavered a little.

Lotor hesitated at that, half turning towards her. He looked confused by her concern, like maybe full-tilt sparring was just how they did things on Doom. Nobody practiced that way in the castle though, not when an accident could put Voltron out of action. The team trained carefully. Methodically. They didn’t take risks. Which was why it was such a shock to see Keith’s sword arcing out towards Lotor’s unprotected neck.

It took half a beat for Lance to realize just what was happening. Didn’t Keith see that his opponent’s back was turned? Lance lifted a hand. Opened his mouth. But he was too far away to be of any use. All he could do was watch as his friend’s blade swept towards the man who was something more complicated than an enemy now.

Allura screamed. The intent look in Keith’s eyes faded as he suddenly checked his swing. Momentum still carried his arm forward, but some combination of the slower attack and Allura’s warning gave Lotor just enough time to drop to his knees. 

The sword passed harmlessly over his head. Lotor struck out with his free arm, crooking an elbow around the back of Keith’s knee. One solid jerk had the commander toppling over; he exhaled hard as he landed flat on his back. Lotor surged up, drawing a menacing looking dagger from his boot while he pinned Keith down.

“I should end you for that,” Lotor snarled, holding the knife against Keith’s pale throat. “But shedding your blood isn’t worth the pain it would cause Allura.”

The tension started to ease from Lance’s shoulders, so _of course_ Keith had to open his big, fat mouth to reply. “What’s the matter, Lotor? Don’t you want her to see who you really are?” He nearly spat the words.

Lance edged forward, keeping his eyes glued to that gleaming little knife. But the blade didn’t move until Lotor flipped it back into the sheath in his boot. “It’s far more important that I know who _you_ are now,” he said. “No matter how much you hate me, no matter how certain you are that my presence is all part of some devilish plan, you don’t have the guts to act on your convictions.”

Lotor hauled himself to his feet, and after one long, unreadable glance at the princess, he turned on his heel and walked out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than anticipated because I wasn't too happy with my first take on it. Sorry about that. The transition between this chapter and some stuff I've already written is halfway done, so we may go as long as three more weeks before being at risk of another delay. 
> 
> Things may slow down during the final stretch because of travel and holiday plans, but I'll try to keep everybody updated as I get a better idea of how that's going to go.


	45. Mixed Signals

When Lotor slipped into her bedroom that night, there was a wary expression on his face. Allura went straight into his arms, resting her head against his chest to feel the steady rhythm of his heart. That brawl in the training room had stirred up a tangle of mixed emotions, but the strongest one was relief that he was safe and whole and here with her now.

Even so, he had to know that she disapproved of his outburst. After holding him long enough to soothe her strained nerves, she stepped back. “Did you really need to be so hard on him?”

Lotor let out a weary sigh. “What would you have had me do, Allura? Offer the man my hand and invite him to tea?”

She bit at the edge of her lower lip and wished, not for the first time, that these people who meant so much to her could find some way to get along. “I don’t blame you for being angry, but it was just an accident. I’m sure Keith didn’t mean any harm.” 

“He could have broken my neck,” Lotor said flatly. “He values his righteous self-image too much to have planned it in advance, but a fighter of his skill doesn’t swing at an opponent’s back without intending to.”

A thread of ice skidded down her spine, but… no. She couldn’t believe it. Everything happened so fast, and Keith had pulled up once he realized his mistake. Still, it was easy to see why Lotor would be suspicious. “I know you’re used to watching out for yourself, but Arus isn’t like Doom,” she said, taking hold of one of his hands. “Betrayal isn’t a way of life here; we don’t turn on each other just to get ahead.”

The doubt was plain on his face, but that didn’t worry her much. He’d come around once he spent enough time at the castle. 

“You have so much faith in them,” he said at last.

“I do.” Allura peered up at him, suddenly needing him to understand. “And not only in them.”

His golden eyes widened slightly as he pulled her close again. She snugged tight against him, reminding herself that this war couldn’t last forever. Maybe one day they’d all just be able to live their lives and be happy.

***

Meanwhile, in his small chamber in the crew quarters, Keith glared at the screen of his terminal. Another one of those damn messages had come through.

They were short, never more than a line or two. And while the sender code was a garbled mess, it was obvious who, or at least where, they were from. The first one showed up nearly two weeks ago: “ _Hand over the traitor._ ”

He should have taken it straight to Pidge. Started a formal investigation about how the drule were slipping comms past the castle’s security protocols. The guys had been on edge since Allura’s release from the med ward though, and it’s not like his mystery correspondent was hurting anything by sending vague demands mixed with occasional references to the bounty on Lotor’s head. Keith could handle this on his own.

Today’s message was more of the same. “ _Give us the traitor. We know you don’t want him there._ “

“Well they’ve got _that_ right,” Keith said with a snort. Back in the training room… things had gotten a little out of control. He’d never seen Allura so upset, and then she walked right out before he could talk to her. He probably ought to apologize, not that he’d really done anything wrong. Lotor was the one who’d been throwing around insults.

The more Keith thought about it, the more he was sure that all their recent troubles were Lotor’s fault. The whole blockade was his plan in the first place, and he’d even admitted to that! It was crazy to think that the guy was allowed to roam free in the castle. Keith had spent weeks wracking his brain over how to handle the situation, but before he could start thinking himself in circles again, another new message popped up on his terminal.

There were no words this time, just an image. It was a little blurred, like it had been clipped out of a longer vid, but it showed enough to shake Keith’s understanding of recent events. 

On one side of the picture, the massive paws of Blue Lion towered over a pair of Doom’s fighter ships. A drule soldier charged in from the opposite edge of the frame. And there, right between the lion’s gleaming metal feet, was Lotor. That conniving bastard held his sword in one hand and supported Allura’s waist with the other as he kissed her hard enough to tip her backwards. Allura had her eyes closed, and her arms were wrapped tightly around Lotor’s shoulders.

Just looking at it made Keith feel sick to his stomach. Allura always tried to find the best in everyone, and a sleaze like Lotor would know just how to play on that. How to use it to his advantage. No wonder they hadn’t found any signs of brainwashing while Allura was in the med ward; all Lotor really needed to manipulate the princess was his own oily charm.

Keith cleared off his screen and dropped his head into his hands. If he made a big fuss about this, he’d embarrass Allura. He’d also have to explain exactly where the image came from. And if the princess was deeply enough under Lotor’s sway, showing something like this off could make her dig in her heels. 

He had to deal with this quietly, and he needed to do it fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite running into an unexpected time sink this week, I'm expecting next week's chapter to be on time. We may have another short break after that, but I'll stick any progress updates in the comments.


	46. Back Channels

Lotor’s next few days passed in a blur. Keith all but snarled at him whenever they chanced across one another, so the man was definitely nursing a grudge. The drule blockade fleet also still orbited thickly around Arus, trapping Lotor on the planet when he needed to be raiding his father’s treasury. He’d be the first to admit that this imprisonment had its rewards, but every night he spent in Allura’s bed now would make it harder for him to fend off the disaster that lay before them.

It didn’t help that everyone else seemed resigned to the thought of a royal wedding. Coran kept asking if Allura had narrowed down her choices yet, and Nanny fretted about the difficulty of planning a celebration during a time of war. The maids scoured every closet and storeroom in the castle for a selection of gowns formal enough for this hypothetical ceremony, which became a pleasant distraction once he teased Allura into modeling a few of them in private. When one particularly form-fitting dress proved a little too fragile to withstand his inspection, he made a very thorough apology to her atop the rest of that pile of satin and lace.

But while he tried to remain optimistic in front of his princess, Lotor was becoming less and less certain that he could scrape together enough credits to both delay the wedding and build up a larger force, especially once he realized his reduced circumstances were likely to cut off other avenues of support. No one would extend any significant amount of credit to a man without a title or position, and he suspected that his so-called friends had already forgotten the favors they owed him.

It was definitely time to get to work. The blockade might keep him from booking passage in the usual way, but he’d already seen that a determined lion could slip through the line. So all he really needed was a transport ship willing to linger just out of range of the fleet. Most of Allura’s fellow pilots had stopped whining about his presence, but they still wanted him gone. Surely any one of them would be thrilled to ferry him offworld.

He should have discussed all this with Allura already; it was long past due. His running off to play pirate would worry her though, and he wasn’t about to let himself be talked out of the plan. So Lotor dodged the issue, unwilling to face the argument he felt sure it would cause.

_Tonight_ , he told himself, turning his steps towards the training room. _I’ll tell her tonight_. In the meantime, he’d run through his sword exercises again. A good, hard workout should help him relax.

He passed Lance on the stairs and gave the pilot a shallow nod. But as he continued on his way, he heard Lance pause and clear his throat. Lotor turned around slowly.

“We’re all going to the briefing room,” Lance said in a rush. He frowned a little, clearly unsure about whether he should have spoken. “Pidge wanted everyone to meet. He didn’t say why. But I know you don’t have a wrist comm, and I guess you’re part of ‘everyone’ now. So…” He shrugged and walked away.

Lotor watched his retreating back for a few long moments before following.

***

Allura sat calmly at her place in the briefing room. A princess was meant to keep a certain level of poise even while waiting around, which meant she shouldn’t drum her fingers like Lance or rest her head on the table like Hunk. Keith held himself with his usual military discipline, setting an example that nobody else at the table followed.

Only two of the room’s occupants looked remotely comfortable. Coran had the foresight to bring along his datapad, so he could busy himself with supply reports until Pidge arrived. And then there was Lotor, who lounged back and propped his legs on a spare chair, making it clear that poise was something that happened to other people.

Of course Lotor chose just that moment to glance her way. He caught her looking and rolled back his shoulders, breaking into a casual stretch that just happened to emphasize his lean, muscular form. Allura dropped her eyes right away, but that was hardly enough to keep him from holding her attention.

He’d been on her mind more and more lately. No matter where she was or what she was doing, she found herself wanting to tell him things. Wondering how he’d react. Thinking back to times they’d spent together. Of course the sight of him now, sprawled out and preening, brought up a very specific set of memories that she was _not_ going to dwell on in the middle of the briefing room.

After what seemed like an awfully long time, Pidge finally walked in. “Sorry I’m late, everybody, I was trying to gather a little more data.” His high-pitched voice trailed off as he looked around the room, but then he lifted his chin and continued. “I guess I should start by saying that I wasn’t able to trace anything to one specific terminal. But my scans have made one thing clear: we’ve suffered a major security breach. Someone from inside the Castle of Lions has been communicating with the drule fleet.”

Allura’s breath caught hard in her chest as she tried to reinterpret those words, to make them lead to anything other than the terrible suspicion that gripped her. It was unthinkable, wasn’t it? Could she really have been such a fool? And then slowly, almost against her will, she joined Coran and her fellow pilots in looking expectantly towards Lotor.

Her lover’s stony expression showed no trace of what was going on inside his head. She waited for him to laugh off the accusation, to launch into some dry, mocking refusal of the idea that he’d do something like that. Instead, he stayed silent.

She pushed back from the table, walking over to a wide window that gave the room a dazzling view of the setting sun. The others peppered Pidge with questions, but from the sound of things, there weren’t many answers to be had. Allura tuned the conversation out.

If Lotor had a legitimate reason to contact the fleet, if this was all just part of his plan, why didn’t he say something? Why didn’t he defend himself? He came to Arus with good intentions. No matter what the boys might think, she knew that was true. It had been an impulsive decision though. And one that she’d forced on him.

He’d lost his power and position, and for what? Her gratitude? The grudging tolerance of her friends? A romance that had to be kept behind locked doors? Maybe Lotor regretted all his sacrifices.

By the time she turned to face the room again, Pidge and Hunk had veered off on a tangent about signal-switching and layered transmissions. Coran voiced a soft set of orders into a comm panel, and Keith stood with his hand dangerously close to the grip of his blaster. Lance was usually among he first to share his thoughts during a crisis, but for now he just watched them all with tired eyes.

Lotor unfolded from his chair and moved towards her, so it was clearly time to ask the biggest of the questions that haunted her. “Can you at least tell me why?”

He stopped abruptly and cocked his head. “Truly?”

Maybe the answer shouldn’t matter right now. To the rest of the room, it probably didn’t, but she had to know. “Lotor, please,” she said quietly, trying to ignore the moisture that welled in her eyes. “If you could just help me understand…”

His handsome mouth twisted into a scowl. “You still don’t trust me? After all that’s passed between us, you think I’d leave your bed every morning to conspire with your enemies?”

Allura’s heart clenched tight in her chest as a strangled sound came from somewhere behind him. Lotor heard it too, and his expression softened. He opened his mouth, ready to speak again, but it was too late. She didn’t want to hear anything else from him. From anyone.

A few quick steps carried her past him as she fled the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be at least a one week delay before the next chapter. I've got everything pretty thoroughly planned from here on out, but this is a busy time of year so I'll need more time between updates.
> 
> Thanks, as always, for all the feedback. Y'all are the wind beneath my wings. The cheese in my macaroni. The karo-syrup blood in my slasher movie. Or something like that.


	47. Never Too Late

The harsh taste of what passed for alcohol around here still coated Lotor’s tongue, but the bottle he’d been gulping from was empty. Hollowed out. As dry and pointless as he’d just made the rest of his goddamned life.

He sat on the floor in the hallway outside Allura’s chamber. He wasn’t drunk enough to try the lock bypass code yet, or maybe he didn’t want to find out if she’d already changed it. And even if he got through the door, what could he say? He tipped the bottle up to his lips again, chasing the few stray drops that had to be inside. One more drink, and he might be able to face her.

A pair of hard-soled boots clacked steadily down the hall. Another guard, probably. They’d been passing by much more frequently than usual for the past hour; he was half-surprised they hadn’t challenged his presence. Apparently he wasn’t the only one unsure of how to handle things today.

The footsteps got louder then stopped, and Lotor didn’t bother to stifle the curse that came out when he glanced toward the sudden lack of sound. Brightly-polished boots. Red ones, like blood spurting fresh from the vein. His gaze tracked up past the blindingly white uniform all the way to the disapproving glare of his least favorite person in this entire fucking place. Because _that_ was who he really needed to see right now. “I assume my cell is ready,” he said, managing not to slur the words. “I hope it’s been aired since my last visit.”

Keith let out a huff that sounded caught between disdain and amusement. “Coran locked down all the external comms, so no messages can be sent from the castle without his personal approval. We decided that was enough, at least for now.”

“Well if you aren’t here to return me to the involuntary guest quarters…” Lotor waved a hand in a clear sign of dismissal. Even Keith couldn’t have misinterpreted so clear a gesture, but for some damn reason he didn’t go away. Instead, he took a seat on the floor.

“You don’t belong here,” he said. The words were less than friendly, but they didn’t carry his usual spite. He sounded calm. Confident. Like someone who suspected he was about to get his way. He was probably right. Right about all of it. Lotor could not have fit into Allura’s world any more than she’d have happily adjusted to his. But that didn’t make him any more inclined to take the criticism gracefully.

“Do you actually have something to say, or are you just here to gloat?”

Keith shrugged, seeming intent on speaking his piece. “If you really cared about Allura, you’d have gone by now. Sticking around was selfish. It made things harder on her.”

_Gods and demons_ , the man had nerve. If they were stacking up sins, Lotor thought accepting his princess’s hospitality was more pardonable than drugging her. But where did being careless with her secrets fit into that hierarchy? The best person to ask was in no mood for talking, and he couldn’t trust Keith’s opinion on the subject. The good captain was apparently still trying to tell himself that his anger towards his rival was entirely on Allura’s behalf.

Lotor let out a burst of bitter laughter. His love was frenzied, all-consuming, and he was entirely too vocal about even his most questionable intentions. Keith’s passions were more restrained; though it might be a mistake to believe they were milder. Yet here they sat, both hopelessly infatuated with a woman who deserved better than either of them. “What a pair we make,” he said at last.

Keith shot him a sidelong glance, frowning. “I’m nothing like you.”

“And I can only be grateful for that,” Lotor said with complete sincerity. Had the Voltron Force been led by a version of Keith that was brasher, bolder, maybe a little more selfish, so many things might have been different.

“Well at least we agree on something,” Keith said.

It was a momentous occasion, the kind of thing well worth celebrating. Unfortunately Lotor’s bottle was sadly bereft of its contents. He hefted it with a slight sigh. “I’d drink to that, if I had the means.”

Keith paused, then reached carefully inside his jacket and pulled out a small flask, which he passed over. Lotor took a quick sip followed by a longer one. The liquor was strong, almost astringent, with an oddly tart aftertaste. But it would do. A few more shots of this might even help him conjure up some excuse for being such a thoughtless bastard. He moved to pass the flask back, but Keith waved it away. 

Another quick drink then, and after that Lotor would gather the courage to face his princess. Just one. More.

***

Allura’s bedroom was dark and mercifully silent. She’d stopped sobbing a couple of hours ago, but her sense of embarrassment wouldn’t wipe away as easily as her tears. What must they all think of her now?

How could Lotor have been so careless? He knew she wasn’t ready to be public about their relationship. For one quick but awful moment, she wondered if he’d just grown tired of the secrecy. But no. _No_. It must have been a mistake. He was so used to speaking his mind that, given the circumstances, he probably stopped caring about their audience.

And… _oh no_. She had been so busy feeling sorry for herself that she’d all but forgotten the reason for Lotor’s slip. He’d been exiled. Stripped of his position. Anyone loyal to his father ought to be hunting him now, so why would he go behind her back to speak with the drule? There was no proof Lotor sent those transmissions. The rest of the team had just assumed it, and she blindly followed their lead. She should have thought things through before she started flinging accusations around.

It was all such a mess, but throwing a quiet tantrum in her quarters wasn’t going to fix anything. She’d chosen to be with Lotor, even knowing that they might be found out. And no matter how angry she was with him over bringing up their private life in front of the others, she still owed him an apology. She also had a spy to track down.

Allura took a few moments to put her appearance to rights before she stepped out in the hall. It was late now, but there was no way she’d be able to sleep until things were more settled. Lotor would most likely be in his room. She’d try there first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, and I'm also sorry to say there will be more of those to come. From now on I'll just be posting chapters as I get them finished and edited.


	48. A Last Mistake

Lance rolled from his side to his back, then over on his side again. It was late, he was tired, and he had that midmorning shift in the command center tomorrow. He took slow deep breaths, trying to settle himself down. That didn’t help.

He was usually a great sleeper, partly because he was the all-time champion at ignoring things he didn’t want to think too closely about. This was different, though. 

How could the princess have fallen for Lotor? The guy was handsome enough, sure, but he was also a real jerk. And then there was that whole “trying to conquer the planet” thing. Was Allura really going to forgive that?

The messed up part was that Lance had actually believed in that banishment ploy. Lashing out against Zarkon for threatening the princess was exactly the kind of mixed-up thing Lotor would do, and it didn’t make sense to give up both a valuable prisoner and Blue Lion just to get a spy into the castle. Lance knew he was still missing something, which is why he was no closer to sleep than he’d been an hour ago. 

He was almost grateful when a sharp rap at the door gave him an excuse to stop thinking in circles. If Keith or Pidge couldn’t sleep either, maybe they’d figure this out together. Lance shuffled over, kicking his feet into his slippers along the way, but when the door slid aside it revealed one of the last people he expected to see right now.

Allura looked over his shoulder, checking that the rest of the room was clear before she gave him a tight smile. “May I come in?” 

Lance stepped out of the way and waved her inside, not sure, for once in his life, of what to say. How do you tell a friend you’re sorry she has lousy taste in men, but you’ve still got her back? After a moment, he decided on something simple. “What can I do to help?”

That little space mouse, Cheddar, ran out along Allura’s shoulder and immediately launched into a series of irate squeaks that Lance, as usual, couldn’t understand. Thankfully, it didn’t take the princess long to quiet her pet and turn back to him. “Can you please get dressed? I'll explain everything on the way.”

***

Lotor’s mouth was gummy as he came to. _Gods_. No more drinking. Not for a few weeks, at least. His eyelids were too damn heavy to raise, and he felt groggy, disoriented. Exhausted, like he hadn’t slept at all. And he had no memory of whatever the hell he’d done to end up here.

His cheek was damp, pressed against a patch of dewy grass. Had he wandered into the kitchen garden? No. The ground was hard, uneven, and there was a rock digging into his shoulder. He tried to shift into a more comfortable position, which left his wrists scraping against the restraints that held his arms wrenched behind his back.

 _Fuck_ , Lotor thought, sorting through a set of hazy recollections that might have led him to this point. Red gloves tugging him to his feet just outside Allura’s door. An unsteady trip down the back stairs. Slumping outside one of the zipline tubes with that godforsaken flask still clutched tight in his hand. He’d been so full of booze and anger that he let his guard down.

A quick flex of his muscles made it clear that his legs were shackled, too. There was a lockpick sewn into the cuff of his jacket, but that would only be helpful if he hadn’t left the garment in question folded over the back of a chair in his room. It was a ridiculous mistake, but even lying here with his limbs trussed, it was difficult to believe the oh-so-heroic leader of the Voltron Force had resorted to kidnapping. The drugging was another matter. Keith had, after all, done that before.

There was a soft grunt off to the left, and Keith’s voice drifted down. “So you’re awake,” he said. Lotor finally opened his eyes.

Once they adjusted to the moonlight, he saw trees off in the distance. Black Lion, as well as its hated pilot, were both closer to hand. The lion ship was crouched down on its belly, giving it a slightly less noticeable profile. After getting a look at his surroundings, Lotor turned his attention to Keith. “I’m going to bleed you for this.”

Keith snorted, clearly not impressed by the threat.

There was a shoulder-width of space in the leg restraints, so after a few moments of wobbly effort, he managed to stand. Running would not be an option, but at least he could keep a little of his dignity as he faced what was coming next. And now that he was shaking off the effects of whatever Keith had dosed him with, Lotor felt sure he knew what was about to happen. “The price on my head must be staggering if it’s managed to tempt someone like _you_ ,” he said.

“Shut up.” Keith glanced at his wrist comm, frowning.

“But what will you tell Allura? She’ll wonder where I’ve gone.”

The captain clenched his fists and turned his head away. _Interesting_. No doubt he’d convinced himself that getting Lotor out of the way would help the princess. Though once she realized the truth…

A sudden chill whispered over the back of Lotor’s neck. “Sooner or later, Allura is going learn of this,” he said. The conviction was clear in his tone. “She will _never_ believe I just wandered off after our fight, and she won’t stop digging until she knows what happened to me.”

“I told you to shut up,” Keith snapped. He looked over towards the tree line.

“Listen to me, you fool.” Lotor was in no mood to be diplomatic. “I’m assuming my people will be here soon. They’ll likely even give you the bounty, assuming you’ve the wit to demand the payment clears before you hand me over. That money will buy Allura what? Another year of food for her peasants?”

Keith didn’t deign to answer, but Lotor couldn’t be too far off the mark. His father wanted him badly enough to throw a small fortune at anyone who turned him in.

“No matter how angry Allura is with me right now, she won’t overlook my disappearance. She won’t be satisfied with whatever thin tale you think you’ve concocted. She will find out, and then she’ll never trust you again.”

“Maybe that’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Keith said. He raised his chin, and a faint gust of wind ruffled through his ridiculously styled hair.

He still wasn’t getting it, so Lotor made the picture clearer. “I don’t give a fuck about your risks. When Allura discovers that you sent me into the arms of my loving father, who hopes to kill me as slowly as he can manage, she won’t shake her head and send you to bed without supper. She’s going to take your lion key. If Allura loses all faith in you, she will scrounge up an inferior pilot to take your place.” Even in the darkness, Lotor saw the other man go pale.

“That would be crazy. We’re barely winning some of our fights as it is,” Keith said.

“Which is why you need to convince her that you didn’t betray her by taking me against my will. Tell her we formed this plan together.”

Keith’s mouth gaped open at that. “Wait, what?”

“Invent some reason I might want to return to the fleet,” Lotor said, waiving a hand at him. “Perhaps to steal a better ship than I could buy or to meet with dissidents. That should also serve to explain the transmissions.”

“I don’t understand.”

Lotor’s lip twisted into a sneer. “You could say that, in all honesty, about a great many things, but this one is simple. Until I make my escape, I need you at her side. You’re the one best suited to keep my princess safe.”

Keith winced at the possessive pronoun, but then he straightened his shoulders. “I’d do anything to protect Allura.”

“I know, and that’s the only possible value you have to me,” Lotor said. He stretched his shoulders, trying to keep his muscles loose despite the restraints. “Make no mistake, I’ll get out of this somehow. But if you serve her well until I return, I won’t contradict whatever story you decide to tell. We can settle our business privately, man to man, without tainting Allura’s memories of you.”

“You… you’re actually in love with her. That wasn’t all a lie,” Keith said. His eyes went wide, and then he did something inexplicable, throwing himself down to claw at the shackles around Lotor’s feet. “Shit. Just give me a minute.”

The chain between Lotor’s ankles gave way, but before Keith could free his wrists, two dozen small hand-lights flicked to life and formed a tight circle around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life got complicated, making me even slower than usual. But hey, Cheddar is a goddamn Arusian treasure. And the next chapter involves someone we haven't heard from for a very, very long time.


	49. Reunions

The sudden burst of light played havok with Lotor’s night vision, but the horn-headed shadow that stepped between the rank of soldiers was easy enough to recognize. “Well look who it is.” Cossack’s voice boomed across the field.

Lotor’s eyes adjusted quickly, and as he expected, his former subordinate had a self-satisfied grin on his face. What he did not have, interestingly enough, was a new set of rank insignia. “So even taking my place in the fleet still couldn't wrangle that next promotion out of Zarkon, eh, _Commander_?”

Cossack let out a laugh. “I guess not, Sire, but I’d say my prospects are looking up.”

Keith came slowly to his feet, and after realizing they weren’t about to be shot on sight, he unlocked Lotor’s wrist restraints. Cossack didn’t protest. With as many troops as he’d brought along, an extra set of hands would hardly even the odds.

The three men stood and regarded each other, and Lotor felt sure there was a joke in there somewhere. _A drule, a human, and a half-breed walk into a circle of well-armed soldiers_ … If he handled this with enough finesse, maybe he could avoid becoming the punchline.

It would require just the right touch: a display of indifference mixed with an oblique appeal to years spent serving side by side. He couldn’t push too hard either. It wouldn’t help to make Cossack look weak in front of his men. Talking their way out of this called for both subtlety and a thorough understanding of drule culture, which meant it was singularly unhelpful when Keith, Hero of Arus and newly minted defender of wayward ex-royals, decided to take charge of the situation. “Change of plans. The deal’s off.”

Cossack folded his arms across his chest. “Well if we’re not keeping our promises today, maybe I oughta take the prince and your lion, too.”

“I don’t think so.” Keith’s hand dropped to the grip of his pistol.

The air filled with the slow whine of a dozen las-rifles being primed. Lotor darted a glance at the stand of trees, but even at a full sprint, he’d never make it before the guns recharged. It also wasn’t safe to assume the entire first round of shots would be directed Keith’s way. Time to step in. “Damn it, Cossack. Just pay the man. It’s not as if Zarkon can’t spare the funds.”

“Okay, okay.” Cossack tapped a quick set of commands into his wrist comm. A flicker of surprise crossed Lotor’s face, but he stifled it before Cossack continued. “It’s done. But are you sure you don’t want me to shoot him? Just for old times’ sake?”

Lotor shook his head, hoping the captain had enough sense to keep his mouth shut. “If you put a gun in my hand right now, he’s not the one I’d aim for.”

“Careful, Sire,” Cossack said, still grinning from ear to ear. “I might start to think you’re not happy to see me.”

“That’s usually a safe assumption. I was hoping to gather a fleet of my own before we met again.”

Cossack’s eyes went wide. “You were gonna start buying ships to come at Zarkon? For real?”

“Of course,” Lotor said cooly. Cossack of all people should know he’d never give up his claim without a fight. “It will take time to build a force mighty enough to challenge Doom, but my father’s days on the throne are numbered.”

“Funny you should say that —“ But whatever it was that Cossack found so amusing was cut off by the thrum of a well-tuned set of powerful engines.

Blue Lion streaked out of the sky, diving so low overhead that Lotor felt a rough wash of air from its passage. It turned and fairly leaped to the ground, and a bone-shaking roar rumbled out of its maw. Almost as soon as the lion came to a halt, Allura climbed from the cockpit. Then Red Lion settled down beside its sister ship; apparently his princess didn’t intend to confront an enemy without backup this time.

She stalked towards them with her shoulders back and her head held high, showing off that perfect posture that only came from years spent drilling at protocol. Her golden hair was piled up and braided in her customary style. Lotor remembered the sight of it unbound, spilling over her bare shoulders, and his fingers twitched. He wanted to find every pin holding the locks in place. To hunt them like a battlefield objective. But as she slipped through the line of drule, he saw that her lovely mouth had settled into a thin, determined line.

Here, then, was the rebel who challenged him. The pilot who outmaneuvered him. The daughter of kings who had become a power in her own right. She had walked into danger as if that were the most natural thing in the world to do, and instead of concerning herself with the soldiers that surrounded her, she went straight to Lotor’s side.

Allura reached out to take hold of his hand before she spoke. “I am so, so sorry.”

Suddenly his chest felt tight. How could those be the first words she spoke to him after what he’d done? “I ought to be the one apologizing."

“Then let’s just say we’ll both do better from now on,” she said quietly. Lotor gave her a slightly mystified nod, and only then did she turn to face Cossack. “Your troops have ten seconds to drop those rifles before Red Lion melts every person standing more than three feet from me.”

Cossack cocked his head at Lotor. “Can it really _do_ that?”

“I’m not sure,” Lotor said with a drawl. “Shall we find out together?”

“Okay, everybody. Do what she says.” Cossack waved his arms at his soldiers as he took one large step closer to the princess. The drule around them powered down their weapons and set the guns down.

“Well that’s a relief,” Keith said. “Good going, Allura.”

She didn’t even look over when she spoke to him. “Get back to the castle. Now.”

“But, princess…”

Allura held up a hand. “Not now, Keith. We’ll discuss it later.” In a rare fit of wisdom, Keith didn’t argue. He let out a sigh and trudged towards Black Lion instead. 

His rival’s retreat stirred an unwelcome wisp of empathy in Lotor. He refused to pity the man, and he certainly wouldn’t forgive him. But Lotor knew he’d come perilously close to provoking a similar kind of dismissal from her. Yes, he was cocky. Impulsive. Probably a little too temperamental. Those aspects of his personality weren’t going to change, but at least he wasn’t wholly unwilling to admit to his mistakes. He never wanted to wind up in Keith’s predicament, to shatter Allura’s trust so badly that perhaps the fault could never be mended.

Lotor’s fingers were still twined with hers, and he held on tight as Black Lion took off and sped towards its den. She glanced up at him with a shy smile, which did not go unnoticed.

“So, uh, are you guys actually an item?” Cossack asked.

Allura pulled her hand away just long enough to wrap her slender arm around Lotor’s waist. “We are,” she said boldly. Only the faintest hint of a blush spread across her cheeks.

“Oh, good. That’ll help,” Cossack sounded entirely too pleased for someone about to spend the rest of his night in one of the princess’s holding cells.

Lotor thought of himself as a perceptive man, but in the past few hours he’d been drunk, drugged, and nearly spirited off to whatever form of bespoke torture his father had waiting for him. He was in no mood for games. “What the hell are you talking about, Cossack?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet, Sire?” The commander rested his hands on his hips, clearly relishing the confusion he’d caused.

All those recent little oddities came flashing through Lotor’s mind. The clumsy scouting parties. The missing ground invasion. The total lack of a large-scale bombing campaign. Cossack gave over the ransom without complaint, and during this entire conversation, he’d been using Lotor’s title. _Gods_. “This isn’t a kidnapping attempt,” he said slowly, half-fearing the fragile logic of his conclusion might shatter as soon as he voiced it. “It’s a rescue.”

Cossack beamed at him. “When your new buddies at the castle refused an out-and-out swap, we thought they were gonna put you on trial at Galaxy Garrison or something. I figured it was time to get creative. But just know that as soon as you think it’s time to head back to Doom, you’ll have that whole damned fleet at your back.”

Lotor’s breath caught hard at the words, but he’d made too many premature declarations of victory to take this sudden shift of loyalty at face value. Apparently his princess shared his concerns. “I don’t trust him,” Allura said.

“I’m not certain I do either, but it can’t hurt to hear the man out.”

She glared at Cossack. “You will march these soldiers to the castle, where you’ll surrender your weapons to my guards. Red Lion will follow along as escort. All of you will submit to a full interrogation, and if I’m satisfied with the results, then you can meet with Lotor, myself, and my senior advisor.”

Cossack looked a question at Lotor, who signaled his agreement with the plan. Assuming the offer was sincere, they’d be allies soon in any case, and what was a little interrogation between friends? As Cossack began the slow trek to the Castle of Lions, Allura relayed her orders to Lance. 

Then she took Lotor’s hand again and tugged him towards Blue Lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry everyone, but the next chapter will be delayed because I have to focus on some family issues right now. If it looks like it'll take more than three weeks, I'll post an update in the comments.


	50. Interlude

As Allura climbed into Blue Lion, she kept sneaking glances down at Lotor. If anything had happened to him… The princess gave her head a firm shake, trying not to dwell on what might have gone wrong. He was here and safe, just a few rungs beneath her feet. That’s all that mattered right now. So as soon as they reached the privacy of the cockpit, she launched herself into his arms.

He caught her in a tight embrace, and Allura was able to breathe easy for the first time since she’d found his quarters empty. “I was afraid we’d be too late,” she said, snuggling against him.

Lotor smoothed a hand over her hair. “If my father, your friends, and the disapproval of two worlds haven’t separated us, why assume the Doom navy could pull off such a feat?”

The words held more weight than his usual bravado, and she peered up at him. “You really believe that, don’t you? That no matter how things went tonight, we could have worked it out.”

“I know you, Allura,” he said. His eyes glittered down at her, and in the low light of the cockpit, they were the color of fresh-forged brass. “Which means I’m quite confident that you can handle any difficulty you’re faced with. And there’s one more thing I’m sure of: as long as I still live, nothing in this or any other galaxy will keep me from you.”

She stretched up for a slow kiss, and in that moment, Allura knew it was time to tell the others she was through with reviewing suitors and half-heartedly planning a wedding to some stranger. Being with Lotor would mean bucking centuries of custom and tradition, but he was worth it. He was worth everything.

The kiss grew heated, and Lotor pulled back a little. “I suppose we had better go talk to Cossack.”

“Later,” she murmured, tangling her hands in his disheveled hair. Cossack might prove to be an ally, but if not, he was her prisoner. Either way, he wouldn’t be ordering an assault on Arus tonight, which meant Allura could afford to be a little selfish.

Lotor’s mouth eased into a wicked smile. “I can’t tell if I’ve been a bad influence on you or a very, very good one.”

“Maybe a little of both?” She kissed him again, which muffled his growled agreement.

The cockpit was cramped, especially with the pilot’s seat turned around to face the exit hatch, but Allura wasn’t sure she could stop touching him long enough to reach the passenger compartment. She shoved him down into the pilot’s seat instead.

He fell back heavily in the padded seat, and Allura perched on his lap. Then his mouth was at her neck, searching out all the spots that made her squirm.

It would be easy enough to give herself over to him, to leave her pleasure entirely in Lotor’s oh-so-capable hands. But Allura had no intention of taking things easy tonight. She ran her tongue lightly along the ridge of his ear, and when his muscles went rigid beneath her, she did it again.

Lotor exploded into motion. He grabbed at her waist, turning her until she straddled him, and then one of his hands settled on her bottom. The other hand buried itself in her hair, scattering hairpins across the cockpit floor as he took down her braids.

They were pressed so close to one another that when Allura rolled her hips, the contact left her moaning. It felt unbelievably good. It would feel better if they were closer to naked though, so she tugged at his clothes. She needed more of him. Now. More fierce caresses, more skin beneath her greedy hands.

She could so easily have lost him. The thought stirred her anger again, and she kissed him hard before wrestling him free of his shirt. “I’m not giving you up. Not to Doom or anyone else,” she said. Her tone was nearly savage.

“My lioness.” Lotor murmured the endearment against her jaw.

Was that really how he saw her? Bold? Maybe even aggressive? She certainly felt that way at the moment. Allura stood and ran a hand through her hair, freeing her unpinned braids into waves that tumbled past her shoulders. Then she shimmied out of her flight suit and everything beneath it. He finished undressing as almost an afterthought, keeping his eyes locked on her until she reclaimed her place across his lap.

Lotor’s hands were warm but too gentle as they teased over her, so she reached down and used a few steady strokes to show him what she wanted.

“ _Gods and fucking demons_ , lover.” His grip tightened, fitting their bodies more closely together as his fingertips dug into her thighs. And when they kissed, she felt the brief edge of teeth.

Allura settled her weight down, taking him inside her, and Lotor let out a fresh batch of profanity. All his little blasphemies used to shock her, but having him like this... It made her appreciate the need for a stronger set of language.

She felt impossibly full, a sensation that left her gasping even before she began to rock against him. They moved together quickly. Urgently. As if to prove the world outside couldn’t change things between them. She scored her nails lightly down his back, and he let out a hiss. Maybe he couldn’t spare the breath for more curses.

His hands closed hard on her hips, guiding her through each delicious surge of friction. She wanted to draw these stolen moments out. To savor them. But everything felt so overwhelming right now; so intense that any stray touch consumed her.Lotor’s mouth traced over her lips. Her shoulder. Her breast. And suddenly the bliss that had been building in her shuddered its way out, dragging her over the edge. He followed with a full-throated shout, and then he held her close while they came back to themselves.

He spoke up eventually, but the words were a little at odds with his sated rumble. “I still owe you that apology, Princess.”

Allura shook her head. “Make me a promise instead.”

“I’ve a mind to promise you any number of things,” he said, sliding a hand down to cup at her backside.

She arched a brow at that, and after one solid squeeze, Lotor’s look turned attentive. “Promise me that the next time we have a problem, we’ll actually talk about it,” she said softly. “Nobody storms off, and nobody gets drunk and kidnapped.”

“I promise.” He planted an innocent kiss on her forehead, but mischief lit his eyes. “Tonight is hardly an experience I’d wish to repeat, apart from this last little interlude. With that in mind, I’ll make you an additional bargain: I will do my very best not to be kidnapped again as long as you give me your word that there are other things that might lead you to ravish me in your lion.”

Allura buried her grin against his shoulder before answering. “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this fic isn't dead. I'm sorry about the wait, but I had a family situation that involved a lot more ongoing drama than I expected. Life has gone on, and some of it's been pretty great. It's just that when I'm thrown off balance, this kind of just-for-fun project has to be among the first things to get pushed back. 
> 
> I can't promise the mostly regular updates I was doing before, but I'll do my best to get there. Now that things are back on track with the original fiction I've been working on, I should have more time for ludicrous novel-length Voltron smut. :D


	51. Adaptations

Their return to the Castle of Lions did not, of course, go unnoticed. Allura might have wished for a few hours of sleep, or at least a few minutes to braid her hair back into some semblance of propriety. But as soon as she and Lotor hopped out of the zipline tube together, Coran hurried in from the hall.

He crossed the room with surprising speed. “Princess, thank goodness you’re safe.”

“I’m fine, Coran,” she said, resting a hand on her advisor’s arm. “And so is Lotor.”

Coran shifted his gaze Lotor’s way. “Yes, well. Ahem. I deeply regret that you were put in danger while staying as a guest in this castle. That should never have happened, and I apologize.”

Lotor folded his arms across his chest. “I assume you’re going to order a full review of the castle’s security?”

“It’s already underway,” Coran said smoothly. “No one person, no matter how trusted, should have been able to circumvent so many of our systems. It may take some time to complete the evaluation, but I can assure you that nothing like this will happen again.”

“I’d like input on those new protocols, then. I’ve noticed gaps in Allura’s security that need addressing.”

Coran’s eyebrows shot up. He glanced over at the princess, and he didn’t seem all that reassured by her small nod. “I suppose that can be arranged,” he said at last.

She straightened her shoulders and bit back a yawn. “We have a lot to talk about, Coran, but I should run down to the kitchens and make a pot of tea first.”

He gave her an admonishing look. “Princess, you’re clearly exhausted, and it’s going to take Lance a few hours to finish questioning the drule. You should take this time to rest.”

Allura raised a hand in protest. If there was work to be done, then tired or not, she needed to do her part. But before she could say so, Lotor weighed in. “As urgent as this situation is, I doubt Cossack will give up on a valuable alliance just because you've taken a nap.” The words came out in his usual lazy drawl, but they were strained enough to remind her that she wasn’t the only one who’d had a long and trying day.

“I guess I am a little worn out,” she admitted. “In fact, maybe we should all get some sleep. We’ll need to be sharp when it’s time to talk to Cossack.” And then, since there was no time like the present for following through on the choice she’d just made, Allura took Lotor’s hand and led him off towards her room, leaving Coran gaping awkwardly behind them.

***

After a few hours of sleep, a meal, and a mug of the weak brew that passed for a stimulant around here, Lotor had recovered enough to enjoy the discomfiture that spread through the briefing room as he escorted Allura to her chair. He walked beside her, keeping one hand at her lower back, while Coran, Lance, and Pidge pretended to look in any other direction. Hunk was still on duty in the command center, and apparently Keith had decided to make himself scarce for now.

Lance waited until Lotor and Allura were seated before launching into his report. “As much as I hate to admit this: I think Cossack’s playing it straight with us. He didn’t bring just any group of soldiers along. There are a lot of high-ranking officers in the bunch, and they’re all telling the same story. They handed over some pretty solid intel, too.”

“They sure did!” Pidge’s enthusiasm was clear as he called up a stream of data on the room’s central display. “And so far it all checks out. I’ve got the locations of other drule fleets, an estimate of future robeast production, and even a current set of passcodes to get a ship through Doom’s automated defenses.”

“Those codes change every two days,” Lotor said. Still, his thoughts whirled with possibilities.

The small pilot nodded. “Cossack told us that, too. He’s still getting updates for now, but if we want to make the most of all this info, we’d better do something before Zarkon figures out his blockade fleet has changed sides.”

“Any hasty action would be a risk,” Coran said, frowning.

“Yeah, but it’s gonna be dangerous either way,” Lance squinted at the data stream, almost as if he was trying to visualize the battle to come. “I like our odds better if we manage to surprise ‘em.”

Coran and the pilots talked over the possibilities, and while Allura asked sharp questions, she ventured few opinions of her own. It was like no other conference of war Lotor had ever attended.

_If this is how they normally do things_ , he thought, _no wonder they’re only hanging on to Arus by a thread_. It’s not as if they were incompetent; everyone in the room showed varying degrees of tactical insight. The discussions dragged on for far too long though, looping back on one another and revisiting the same few points well past the time when someone should have made a decision.

After three quarters of an hour, Lotor interrupted the chatter. “As I see it, we have two real options. We can hit hard and fast, throwing everything we’ve got directly at Doom as soon as possible. Alternately, we can resign ourselves to years of a slower, planet-by-planet campaign that gives Zarkon time to harden his perimeter. I know which plan I’d prefer.”

“He’s right,” Allura said. Her voice rang solidly through the room. “If we wait, we’ll need to win a lot more battles to make our way to Doom. Any successes we have will also provoke reprisals against allied planets that remain under Zarkon’s control. There are no guarantees either way, so I’d rather take the path with the fewest potential casualties.”

Coran did not seem entirely convinced, but he made no further arguments. “I suppose it’s time to move forward then,” he said. Then he sat back in his chair.

The princess stood and looked around the room, giving each of her people an appreciative smile. “Pidge, I’d like you to work on invasion simulations using that new data while Coran, Lotor, and I meet with Cossack,” she said. “And Lance, you’ve been up all night. Go get some sleep.” She spoke in a friendlier version of that tone she’d used against the drule last night, and it set the pilots scrambling to obey.

Lotor thought, not for the first time, that Allura’s talents had been stifled here. Why else would her friends have waited until now to truly look to her for leadership? They’d been too busy interpreting her initiative as recklessness. Her fresh ideas as naiveté.

If she was a woman of less spirit, their doubts might have infected her, shaking her confidence enough to keep her squeezed into the rigidly defined roles that Galaxy Garrison approved of. Trainee pilot. Junior diplomat. Figurehead. She was so much more than that though, and soon the rest of the universe was going to see what she was capable of. And what they were capable of together.


	52. Concessions

Lotor shoved back from the briefing room table with a disgusted sigh. A gift fleet had just been dropped in his lap, and he had access to the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. For the moment, he even had the element of surprise. If they took fast, decisive action, the war itself might be a mere formality at this point. But of course things could never be that simple. Not for him.

This meeting with Cossack should have been a quick strategy session, a chance to define the broad objectives that they’d need before mobilizing the fleet. So naturally his princess and his newly minted general, the two people with the most influence on his chances of success, had seen fit to use these first few hours of their tentative alliance to plunge straight into the murky depths of _politics_.

“But that’s ridiculous!” Allura said. Her small hands clenched into fists at her side. “All the planets Doom has taken _must_ be set free.”

Cossack scoffed at the idea. “After all the time and money we spent claiming ‘em? Doom earned those victories, and we need the resources. I’m not gonna starve my soldiers just to make you happy.”

“You can take care of your troops without harming other people.”

“Well if you figure out how, princess, maybe then we can talk.” Cossack crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head towards Lotor. “Next thing you know, she’ll be asking us to free the slaves.”

A deadly silence fell over the room. Lotor closed his eyes, briefly, and tried to convince himself that this situation would not be improved by hauling Cossack away to beat some discretion into him. Then Allura thrust her shoulders back and fixed the general with a haughty glare. “Voltron will never fight on the side of slavers. That is non-negotiable.”

“Now see here,” Cossack said, jabbing his finger into his palm. But before he could shape his mouth around whatever idiotic thing he was about to say next, Coran let out a slight cough. In that moment, Lotor mentally recanted every sour thought he’d ever had about Allura’s old advisor. The interruption threw Cossack just enough to remind him that perhaps it was not the best idea to shout at a woman who could toss him back in a cell if she wanted to. “I mean… well, we can free the slaves from Arus since you’re our allies now. But _all_ of them? It just won’t work.”

“It’s going to have to.”

 _Gods_. Lotor thought. _She won’t be happy until she’s turned our entire system upside down_. Economic reforms had always been part of his agenda, but he’d meant to handle them slowly. Carefully. In a way that wouldn’t rile the nobility into open revolt. Then again, those plans had been made before he knew he could count on help from Voltron. Perhaps now there was a way to turn his princess’s scruples to advantage. “We’ll do it,” he said suddenly.

His general’s eyes bugged out. “But, Sire—”

“Think it over, Cossack,” Lotor said, holding up a hand to forestall the argument. “Who owns nearly all of the slaves in the Empire?”

“The nobles. And since they’re also the ones who’ll kick up the biggest fuss about you taking over, why antagonize ‘em even more?”

A slow grin spread over Lotor’s face. “Because if Voltron helps to enforce this new slavery edict, then we won’t need them.”

Cossack cocked his head to one side, still trying to see the connection. Fortunately someone else in the room was quicker to grasp the point. “You want to break them,” Coran said, using a tone that did not precisely sound like approval.

“Not all of them.” Lotor said. He tapped his fingers against the table, still evaluating this new idea even as he explained it. “The smaller, weaker houses will fall in line just to curry favor. The cleverest ones will see this move for what it is, and they’ll follow suit. But the larger legacy houses? Those whose entire income streams are built on slave labor? They’ll all resist, at which point we can oust them, liberate the slaves, and seize their assets.”

Allura let out a sigh. “How is it that you can make even doing the right thing sound like a power grab?”

The sentiment jolted Lotor right out of his half-formed plans for the future. “Perhaps because one set of actions can serve both purposes,” he said quietly. Then he locked eyes with his princess, willing her to understand. “It might have been more comfortable had I said a few vague things about freedom without mentioning this other opportunity, but I’m done with having secrets between us. And besides, you wanted to end the war as quickly as possible. Consolidating power is the surest way to do that.”

She nodded, and a pretty little flush dusted over her cheeks, almost as if that level of honesty struck her as a moment of intimacy. _Interesting_. But before Lotor could pursue the thought, Coran cleared his throat. What about the captive planets?” he asked.

Lotor waved off the concern. “We can give them control over their local affairs fairly quickly,” he said. The pronouncement set Cossack back to scowling, but it was an easy concession to make. Lotor was going to be far to busy to bother with the day-to-day business of individual planets in any case. “I will, of course, eventually release colony worlds that insist on total independence, but that has to be a much slower process. It’s my hope that the changes I’m making will encourage many of them to stay. And if they don’t, I suppose that will give me fewer mouths to feed.”

“It sounds like we’re giving up an awful lot,” Cossack grumbled.

“But look at all the benefits we’ll gain,” Lotor said, biting back the urge to snap at his subordinate. Cossack’s place was to follow orders not to question them, but at least this was good practice for facing these same objections later on. “Voltron will help us against both Zarkon and any nobles who refuse to free their slaves, and changing our society will lead to new financial opportunities. Not to mention that Zarkon’s wars have been far costlier than just focusing on defense will be.”

“As long as the invasions stop, defense is also something Voltron could help with.” Allura leaned forward in her chair.

Lotor made a silent vow to give his princess an appropriate gesture of gratitude at the first opportunity, and then he went on. “If we’re willing to embrace this alliance, we can build an empire that’s stronger and more prosperous than my father ever dreamed of. And we can do it together.”

A thoughtful look crossed over Cossack’s face, and some of the doubt bled out of his expression. But as soon as Lotor started to think they could get back to the more important work of reclaiming his goddamned birthright, the general piped up once again. “I guess that sounds okay, Sire, but since you brought up the alliance… How soon do you think you’ll be able to have the wedding?”

Allura went stock-still, and her advisor dropped his eyes to some fascinating piece of information on his datapad.

 _Gods and fucking demons_ , Lotor thought. _I should have gone with the dragging and the beating after all_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story really needed to address at least a few of the societal differences that an Arus/Doom alliance would have to contend with, but my first few takes on it felt impossibly dry. Apparently for this kind of thing, at least for me, Allura's diligent, service-oriented POV is less interesting than Lotor's restlessness.


	53. An Immodest Proposal

Allura stared out of the conference room window at the small figures, both drule and human, that gathered on the field outside the castle. Cossack had just called two more shuttles of support staff down, and they were setting up codes and joint procedures with her people. It was a display of cooperation she once would have thought impossible.

A small part of her wondered if she was doing the right thing, if this was all going to end in the disaster that Nanny predicted, but it wasn’t as if this decision hinged entirely on Cossack’s word. Now that Lotor had finally been granted access to the castle’s external comms, he’d checked in with his informants in the fleet. Nearly all of the officers had joined Lotor’s side, and the few holdouts were in custody. This was happening. It was going to work.

_If only everything in my life could be handled so smoothly_ , she thought, risking a shy glance over at Lotor. He stood by her side, not speaking, seeming content to watch the flurry of activity down below. They hadn’t said a word to one another since Coran hustled Cossack away to draw up a formal declaration of their alliance.

Things had been changing so fast lately, too fast for her to process it all. But she was a princess, and with any luck, Lotor was going to be a king soon. Anyone seeing them together was bound to wonder about their plans.

“Do you think it’s too early for me to have Cossack banished?” Lotor turned towards her and reached out, tangling their fingers together. “It would be better to wait until the chain of command is more firmly established, but I’ll do it now if that would please you.”

She quirked an eyebrow at that. “I’m not sure we can banish someone just for making things awkward.”

“Of course we can, sweetling,” he said solemnly. “It’s a privilege of rank.”

Allura frowned, but this was no time to debate the ethical use of royal powers. Instead, she turned her gaze back to the soldiers below. “Even without Cossack, they’d all be asking the same thing.”

He shrugged one broad shoulder. “I’ve never much cared what people think of my personal life.”

“Oh,” she said, allowing herself a brief moment of wonder at the idea of just ignoring public opinion. Then she squared her shoulders and asked the real question that had been on her mind. “But what do you want to do about all this? About us?”

Lotor gripped her hand more firmly. “I’d planned to give you at least a full day to adjust to these new circumstances before I started proposing again, but…” He turned towards her, dropping to one knee while her heart thudded hard against her ribs. “There was a time when I thought making you my wife would be the answer to every problem we faced, but now I want whatever comes next for us to be on our own terms. I want to marry you, Allura. Not to formalize an alliance in the eyes of my officers, or to avoid scandalizing your staff with our sleeping arrangements. I simply want to stand up in front of the rest of the galaxy and tell them we belong together. That we _choose_ one another. I want to be your defender, your lover, and your confidant. And if you’re willing, I want you to be my queen.”

The words swelled through her, offering a future in which her duty was, for once, perfectly in line with her heart. It was another beautiful, impossible moment in a life that had recently become filled with them. She pulled him up into a tight embrace.

“Is that a yes?” he murmured against her hair.

“Yes. I would very much like to marry you,” she said, blinking away the moisture that gathered at the corners of her eyes.

He rubbed slow circles against her back, but his shoulders were stiff. “It will mean spending most of our time on Doom, especially at first. I know you didn’t want that.”

Allura thought about the murky clouds that choked the sky of Planet Doom, shutting out the sunlight and bringing a chill to the air. Then she looked into Lotor’s golden eyes. He couldn’t change the seat of the empire for her comfort, and as his wife, she’d have responsibilties on Doom to fulfill. She’d also have a unique chance to work towards lasting peace.

And beyond those things, there was another, deeper truth: spending all their time apart wasn’t an option for her anymore. She loved talking things over with Lotor at the end of a long day. She loved waking up each morning with his arm tucked around her. She loved his calloused hands and his fierce protective streak and the way he had of making her feel like they could take on any challenge. He had become necessary to her happiness, more important than sunny afternoons or warm, fresh breezes. And he’d been so willing to compromise for her sake already. Could she do any less for him?

“Zarkon’s Doom has always felt like a nightmarish place to me,” she said evenly. “But if we defeat him, maybe we can change that. I’ll need to visit here every few weeks to handle matters of state though.”

“Of course. And when I can get away, perhaps I’ll join you.” His voice was calm, but he was still holding her so close that she could feel the tension in his muscles ease. It struck her then that, despite making dozens of proposals before, this time he’d actually been nervous.

She leaned back to look at him. “Did you really think I might say no?”

“I’ve never had much luck at predicting your reactions,” he said. “And considering that I was very nearly just forced to call out my general for how he spoke to you…”

A bright laugh bubbled past her lips. “If brash drule behavior was enough to scare me off, _Cossack_ wouldn’t be to blame for it. But he was right about one thing: we should marry soon.”

Her husband-to-be’s smile turned smug, and the hand on her back slid lower. “Eager to claim me, Princess?”

“Maybe,” Allura admitted, trying to ignore the warmth that flooded her cheeks. “I know it’s unconventional, but the longer we wait, the more people will expect to have some say in the arrangements. And planning a large wedding feels frivolous when we have so much else to do.”

Lotor brushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes. “I’ve no objections to a quick, informal ceremony, if that’s what you’d prefer. Bear in mind that you’re speaking to a man who used to bring a priest or two along on commando raids.”

The words sparked a few memories of strange-looking drule. “Those guys in the robes were _priests_?” They’d shot stunners at her. More than once.

“I asked a few members of my personal squad to volunteer for the mantle of priesthood,” he said, without any hint of shame. “Just in case they were needed in that capacity.”

Her jaw dropped open. “Of all the presumptuous, ridiculous—”

“Don’t forget _fortuitous_ , my love. Our wedding won’t be legal on Doom unless one of the officiants is a specially trained priest, and thankfully there are at least two aboard my flagship.”

The princess huffed a sigh and rested her head against the broad chest of the man who apparently used to make a habit of storming her castle with a wedding priest in tow. She could never have imagined marrying him back then, and now here she was, unwilling to build a life that didn’t have him in it. “Well since you’re so prepared, will you speak to Coran about the contracts this afternoon?”

“I can,” Lotor said slowly. “But don’t you want to be there?”

“I really do,” she said. Then Allura nestled closer to him, taking reassurance in the feel of his arms as they folded around her. Hopefully she could absorb some of their steely strength to carry her through the rest of her day. “Unfortunately, there’s something much less pleasant that I need to handle.”


	54. Needing Space

After checking the pilot’s lounge, the training room, and Keith’s quarters, Allura finally dropped by the Command Center. Pidge sat at the duty station, typing a steady stream of commands in response to the three different data feeds that blinked on the monitors nearby. The long-range scanners looked quiet, and the castle’s planetary defense systems were green across the board.

“Almost done with that first set of battle simulations, Princess,” Pidge said as she entered.

“I’d love to take a look at those, but first, have you seen Keith?”

The pilot’s fingers stilled. He dragged his gaze away from the screens for a moment and bit lightly at his lower lip, frowning. “He didn’t tell you, did he? Of all the...” His fingers flew back to the terminal, and with a few staccato clicks, one row of status displays flashed red.

>>South Hangar. Main Bay Doors. Current Status: Inoperative.<<

“That should take him at least ten minutes to sort out,” Pidge said. His voice trembled a little when he continued. “You’d better hurry.”

Allura set off for the hangar without another word, breaking into a brisk walk that would get her there quickly but also give her a chance to gather her thoughts. And honestly, she needed that time.

She was still furious with Keith. He’d gone against her orders, and if Cossack hadn’t planned to team up with Lotor all along, someone could have been badly hurt last night. And for what? Because Keith had taken it on himself to decide what was best for her. Again.

As angry as she was though, she had never, not once, considered breaking up the team. They’d spent years training together. Fighting together. Bleeding together, all in service to a goal that seemed closer now than it ever had before. Didn’t he want to see that through?

By the time she reached the South Hangar, there were only a couple of minutes to spare. Keith was there, in civilian clothes, and he’d dropped a painfully small rucksack on the deck by his feet. He prodded at the launch terminal, grumbling as he worked to override whatever wrench Pidge had thrown into the system. All of the ships were neatly lined up in their spaces except for one: a single-seat fighter that was the smallest thing in the hangar that was capable of interstellar flight.

“You weren’t even going to say goodbye?” Allura’s voice echoed through the cavernous space.

His shoulders slumped, but Keith kept his back to her. “I was planning to send you a message.”

“A message,” she repeated dryly, as if that made any kind of sense.

“It would have been easier,” he said, finally turning. He wore a guarded expression, his features carefully composed. “It said that I’m sorry. That I should have trusted you more. If I was a better leader, or even just a better friend, things wouldn’t have gotten so mixed up. But I don’t deserve to be here anymore.”

The words were raw, honest, and delivered with enough sincerity that she almost missed the terse little pauses between each sentence. The gaps he’d struggled not to fill. “There’s something else, though. Isn’t there?”

He paused for a long time before answering. “Lotor spent years attacking us. Trying to steal the lions. Trying to steal you away, too. And now that he’s done one decent thing, he just gets everything he wanted?”

The sentiment was less than surprising, but Allura wasn’t prepared for the bitterness in his tone. “It’s everything I’ve wanted, too,” she said firmly. “This means safety for Arus, an end to Doom’s wars of conquest, and freedom for the slaves they’ve taken.”

His eyes widened a fraction. “Lotor agreed to all that?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good, I guess. But it’s not like he gave a damn about any of those things before.”

“Maybe not,” she said with a shrug. “But he doesn’t have to share my ideals in order to respect them. I don’t care if we agree on everything as long as he’s willing to compromise.”

Keith ran a hand through his mussed hair before turning back to the terminal. A few moments later the launch array flipped to green, and then the hangar door slid smoothly up inside the castle wall. “If you ever need me badly enough, I’ll be back. I just… I can’t stay.”

She balled her hands into fists, resisting the urge to reach out. Maybe it was best for him to go, at least for a while. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she settled on the simplest ones. “Be safe,” she told him. “And I hope you know that after everything you’ve done for Arus, you’ll always have a place here.”

He shot her a sad smile and climbed up into the pilot’s seat. “Take care of yourself, Princess.” With one last wave, Keith sealed the cockpit and fired the ship’s engines. They came alive with a bright hum that dropped in pitch as he opened up the throttle and jolted out towards open sky.

Allura stood there on the hangar deck, staring out the wide bay door until the glow of his afterburners faded from view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd usually post something this short as part of a longer chapter, but it doesn't mesh all that well with the next scene. Making it longer also felt like an unnecessary stretch. 
> 
> I hope that this version of Keith didn't come across as unfair to the original character. He always struck me as a little too rigid and upstanding, which left me curious about how far he'd go if he was sure he was right about something.


End file.
